UNIV.  OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 

/  vx 


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MISCELLANIES 


BY 

RALPH   WALDO    EMERSON 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN   AND  COMPANY 
ftfee  Rtoeniibe  £ress, 
1892 


Copyright,  1878, 
BY  RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 

Copyright,  1883, 
B7  EDWARD  W.  EMERSON. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge  Mass.,  if.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Company. 


NOTE. 


THE  first  five  pieces  in  this  volume,  and  the  Editorial 
Address  from  the  "  Massachusetts  Quarterly  Review," 
were  published  by  Mr.  Emerson,  long  ago.  The  speeches 
at  the  John  Brown,  the  Walter  Scott,  and  the  Free  Re- 
ligious Association  meetings  were  published  at  the  time, 
no  doubt  with  his  consent,  but  without  any  active  co- 
operation on  his  part.  The  "  Fortune  of  the  Republic  " 
appeared  separately  in  1879  ;  the  rest  have  never  been 
published.  In  none  was  any  change  from  the  original 
form  made  by  me,  except  in  the  "  Fortune  of  the  Re- 
public," which  was  made  up  from  several  lectures  for 
the  occasion  upon  which  it  was  read. 

J.  E.  CABOT. 


CONTENTS. 


PACK 

THE  LORD'S  SUPPER 7 

HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE 27 

ADDRESS  AT  DEDICATION  OF  SOLDIERS'    MONUMENT 

IN  CONCORD  .        .        .        . .  *     .        .        .        .        .  81 
ADDRESS  ON  EMANCIPATION   IN  THE   BRITISH   WEST 

INDIES 107 

WAR 145 

THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW 167 

THE  ASSAULT  UPON  MR.  SUMNER     ....  189 

SPKECH  ON  AFFAIRS  IN  KANSAS    .....  195 
REMARKS    AT    A    MEETING    FOR    RELIEF   OF   JOHN 

BROWN'S  FAMILY ' .       .  205 

JOHN  BROWN       ........  213 

TIIKODORE  PARKER         .       .        .        .        .       .        .  219 

AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION    ......  227 

Ti IK  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION      .-      •   &•       •  241 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 253 

HARVARD  COMMEMORATION  SPEECH     ....  £63 

EDITORS'  ADDRESS     .......  269 

WOMAN .        i        .279 

ADDRESS  TO  KOSSUTH 297 

II.IKKRT  BURNS         ........  303 

WALTER  SCOTT 309 

REMARKS  AT  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  FREE  RE- 
LIGIOUS ASSOCIATION       .......  315 

SPEECH  AT  THE  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  FREE  RE- 
LIGIOUS ASSOCIATION 321 

THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 329 


THE  LORD'S   SUPPER. 

SERMON   DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE   SECOND  CHURCH  IN 
BOSTON,  SEPTEMBER  9,  1832. 


THE  LORD'S   SUPPER. 


The  Kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink ;  but  righteousness,  and 
peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  — ROMANS  xiv.  17. 

IN  the  history  of  the  Church  no  subject  has  been 
more  fruitful  of  controversy  than  the  Lord's  Supper. 
There  never  has  been  any  unanimity  in  the  understand- 
ing of  its  nature,  nor  any  uniformity  in  the  mode  of 
celebrating  it.  Without  considering  the  frivolous  ques- 
tions which  have  been  lately  debated  as  to  the  posture 
in  which  men  should  partake  of  it ;  whether  mixed 
or  unmixed  wine  should  be  served  ;  whether  leavened 
or  unleavened  bread  should  be  broken  ;  —  the  ques- 
tions have  been  settled  differently  in  every  church,  who 
should  be  admitted  to  the  feast,  and  how  often  it  should 
be  prepared.  In  the  Catholic  Church,  infants  were  at 
one  time  permitted  and  then  forbidden  to  partake;  and, 
since  the  ninth  century,  the  laity  received  the  bread 
only,  the  cup  being  reserved  to  the  priesthood.  So,  as 
to  the  time  of  the  solemnity.  In  the  Fourth  Lateran 
Council,  it  was  decreed  that  any  believer  should  com- 
municate at  least  once  in  a  year,  —  at  Easter.  After- 
wards it  was  determined  that  this  Sacrament  should  be 
received  three  times  in  the  year,  —  at  Easter,  Whiteun- 
tide  and  Christmas.  But  more  importanc  controversies 


10  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

have  arisen  respecting  its  nature.  The  famous  ques- 
tion of  the  Real  Presence  was  the  main  controversy 
between  the  Church  of  England  and  the  Church  of 
Rome.  The  doctrine  of  the  Consubstantiation  taught 
by  Luther  was  denied  by  Calvin.  In  the  Church  of 
England,  Archbishops  Laud  and  Wake  maintained  that 
the  elements  were  an  Eucharist,  or  sacrifice  of  Thanks- 
giving to  God  ;  Cud  worth  and  War  burton,  that  this 
was  not  a  sacrifice,  but  a  sacrificial  feast ;  and  Bishop 
Hoadley,  that  it  was  neither  a  sacrifice  nor  a  feast  after 
sacrifice,  but  a  simple  commemoration.  And  finally, 
it  is  now  near  two  hundred  years  since  the  Society  of 
Quakers  denied  the  authority  of  the  rite  altogether, 
and  gave  good  reasons  for  disusing  it. 

I  allude  to  these  facts  only  to  show  that,  so  far  from 
the  supper  being  a  tradition  in  which  men  are  fully 
agreed,  there  has  always  been  the  widest  room  for  dif- 
ference of  opinion  upon  this  particular.  Having  re- 
cently given  particular  attention  to  this  subject,  I  was 
led  to  the  conclusion  that  Jesus  did  not  intend  to  estab- 
lish an  institution  for  perpetual  observance  when  he  ate 
the  Passover  with  his  disciples  ;  and,  further,  to  the 
opinion,  that  it  is  not  expedient  to  celebrate  it  as  we  do. 
I  shall  now  endeavor  to  state  distinctly  my  reasons  for 
these  two  opinions. 

I.  The  authority  of  the  rite. 

An  account  of  the  last  supper  of  Christ  with  his  dis- 
ciples is  given  by  the  four  Evangelists,  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke  and  John. 

In  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  (Matt.  xxvi.  26-30)  are 
recorded  the  words  of  Jesus  in  giving  bread  and  wine 
on  stiiat  occasion  to  his  disciples,  but  no  expression  oc- 
curs intimating  that  this  feast  was  hereafter  to  be  com- 


THE   LORD'S  SUPPER.  11 


memorated.  In  St.  Mark  (Mark  xiv.  22-25)  the 
words  are  recorded,  and  still  with  no  intimation  that 
the  occasion  was  to  be  remembered.  St.  Luke  (Luke 
xxii.  19),  after  relating  the  breaking  of  the  bread,  has 
these  words :  "  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me."  In 
St.  John,  although  other  occurrences  of  the  same  even- 
ing are  related,  this  whole  transaction  is  passed  over 
without  notice. 

Now  observe  the  facts.  Two  of  the  Evangelists, 
namely,  Matthew  and  John,  were  of  the  twelve  dis- 
ciples, and  were  present  on  that  occasion.  Neither  of 
them  drops  the  slightest  intimation  of  any  intention  on 
the  part  of  Jesus  to  set  up  anything  permanent.  John 
especially,  the  beloved  disciple,  who  has  recorded  with 
minuteness  the  conversation  and  the  transactions  of  that 
memorable  evening,  has  quite  omitted  such  a  notice. 
Neither  does  it  appear  to  have  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  Mark,  who,  though  not  an  eye-witness,  relates  the 
other  facts.  This  material  fact,  that  the  occasion  was 
to  be  remembered,  is  found  in  Luke  alone,  who  was  not 
present.  There  is  no  reason,  however,  that  we  know, 
for  rejecting  the  account  of  Luke.  I  doubt  not,  the 
expression  was  used  by  Jesus.  I  shall  presently  con- 
sider its  meaning.  I  have  only  brought  these  accounts 
together,  that  you  may  judge  whether  it  is  likely  that  a 
solemn  institution,  to  be  continued  to  the  end  of  time 
by  all  mankind,  as  they  should  come,  nation  after  na- 
tion, within  the  influence  of  the  Christian  religion, 
would  have  been  established  in  this  slight  manner  —  in 
a  manner  so  slight,  that  the  intention  of  commemorat- 
ing it  should  not  appear,  from  their  narrative,  to  have 
caught  the  ear  or  dwelt  in  the  mind  of  the  only  two 
among  the  twelve  who  wrote  down  what  happened. 


12  THE  LORD'S   SUPPER. 

Still  we  must  suppose  that  the  expression,  "  This  do  in 
remembrance  of  me,"  had  come  to  the  ear  of  Luke  from 
some  disciple  who  was  present.  What  did  it  really  sig- 
nify ?  It  is  a  prophetic  and  an  affectionate  expression. 
Jesus  is  a  Jew,  sitting  with  his  countrymen,  celebrating 
their  national  feast.  He  thinks  of  his  own  impending 
death,  and  wishes  the  minds  of  his  disciples  to  be  pre- 
pared for  it.  "  When  hereafter,"  he  says  to  them,  "  you 
shall  keep  the  Passover,  it  will  have  an  altered  aspect 
to  your  eyes.  It  is  now  a  historical  covenant  of  God 
with  the  Jewish  nation.  Hereafter  it  will  remind  you 
of  a  new  covenant  sealed  with  my  blood.  In  years  to 
come,  as  long  as  your  people  shall  come  up  to  Jerusa- 
lem to  keep  this  feast,  the  connection  which  has  sub- 
sisted between  us  will  give  a  new  meaning  in  your  eyes 
to  the  national  festival,  as  the  anniversary  of  my  death." 
I  see  natural  feeling  and  beauty  in  the  use  of  such 
language  from  Jesus,  a  friend  to  his  friends  ;  I  can 
readily  imagine  that  he  was  willing  and  desirous,  when 
his  disciples  met,  his  memory  should  hallow  their  inter- 
course; but  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  believe  that  in  the 
use  of  such  an  expression  he  looked  beyond  the  living 
generation,  beyond  the  abolition  of  the  festival  he  was 
celebrating,  and  the  scattering  of  the  nation,  and  meant 
to  impose  a  memorial  feast  upon  the  whole  world. 

Without  presuming  to  fix  precisely  the  purpose  in  the 
mind  of  Je^us,  you  will  see  that  many  opinions  may  be 
entertained  of  his  intention,  all  consistent  with  the  opin- 
ion that  he  did  not  design  a  perpetual  ordinance.  He 
may  have  foreseen  that  his  disciples  would  meet  to  re- 
member him,  and  that  with  good  effect.  It  may  have 
crossed  his  mind  that  this  would  be  easily  continued  a 
hundred  or  a  thousand  years,  —  as  men  more  easily 


THE   LORD'S   SUPPER.  13 

transmit  a  form  than  a  virtue,  —  and  yet  have  been  alto- 
gether out  of  his  purpose  to  fasten  it  upon  men  in  all 
times  and  all  countries. 

But  though  the  words,  "  Do  this  in  remembrance  of 
me,"  do  not  occur  in  Matthew,  Mark  or  John,  and  al- 
though it  should  be  granted  us  that,  taken  alone,  they 
do  not  necessarily  import  so  much  as  is  usually  thought, 
yet  many  persons  are  apt  to  imagine  that  the  very 
striking  and  personal  manner  in  which  the  eating  and 
drinking  are  described,  indicates  a  striking  and  formal 
purpose  to  found  a  festival.  And  I  admit  that  this 
impression  might  probably  be  left  upon  the  mind  of 
one  who  read  only  the  passages  under  consideration 
in  the  New  Testament.  But  this  impression  is  re- 
moved by  reading  any  narrative  of  the  mode  in  which 
the  ancient  or  the  modern  Jews  have  kept  the  Pass- 
over. It  is  then  perceived  that  the  leading  circum- 
stances in  the  Gospels  are  only  a  faithful  account  of 
that  ceremony.  Jesus  did  not  celebrate  the  Pass- 
over, and  afterwards  the  Supper,  but  the  Supper  was 
the  Passover.  He  did  with  his  disciples  exactly  what 
every  master  of  a  family  in  Jerusalem  was  doing  at 
the  same  hour  with  his  household.  It  appears  that  the 
Jews  ate  the  lamb  and  the  unleavened  bread  and  drank 
wine  after  a  prescribed  manner.  It  was  the  custom  for 
the  master  of  the  feast  to  break  the  bread  and  to  bless 
it,  using  this  formula,  which  the  Talmudists  have  pre- 
served to  us,  "  Blessed  be  Thou,  O  Lord,  our  God,  who 
givest  us  the  fruit  of  the  vine,"  —  and  then  to  give  the 
cup  to  all.  Among  the  modern  Jews,  who  in  their  dis- 
persion retain  the  Passover,  a  hymn  is  also  sung  after 
this  ceremony,  specifying  the  twelve  great  works  done 
by  God  for  the  deliverance  of  their  fathers  out  of 
Egypt. 


14  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

But  still  it  may  be  asked,  Why  did  Jesus  make  ex- 
pressions so  extraordinary  and  emphatic  as  these  — 
"  This  is  my  body  which  is  broken  for  you.  Take  ; 
eat.  This  is  my  blood  which  is  shed  for  you.  Drink 
it."  ?  —  I  reply  they  are  not  extraordinary  expressions 
from  him.  They  were  familiar  in  his  mouth.  He  al- 
ways taught  by  parables  and  symbols.  It  was  the  na- 
tional way  of  teaching,  arid  was  largely  used  by  him. 
Remember  the  readiness  which  he  always  showed  to. 
spiritualize  every  occurrence.  He  stopped  and  wrote 
on  the  sand.  He  admonished  his  disciples  respecting 
the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees.  He  instructed  the  woman 
of  Samaria  respecting  living  water.  He  permitted 
himself  to  be  anointed,  declaring  that  it  was  for  his 
interment.  He  washed  the  feet  of  his  disciples.  These 
are  admitted  to  be  symbolical  actions  and  expressions. 
Here,  in  like  manner,  he  calls  the  bread  his  body,  and 
bids  the  disciples  eat.  He  had  used  the  same  expres- 
sion repeatedly  before.  The  reason  why  St.  John  does 
not  repeat  his  words  on  this  occasion,  seems  to  be  that 
he  had  reported  a  similar  discourse  of  Jesus  to  the 
people  of  Capernaum  more  at  length  already  (John  vi. 
27-60).  He  there  tells  the  Jews,  "  Except  ye  eat  the 
flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  no 
life  in  you."  And  when  the  Jews  on  that  occasion  com- 
plained that  they  did  not  comprehend  what  he  meant, 
he  added  for  their  better  understanding,  and  as  if  for 
our  understanding,  that  we  might  not  think  his  body 
was  to  be  actually  eaten,  that  he  only  meant  we  should 
live  by  his  commandment.  He  closed  his  discourse  with 
these  explanatory  expressions :  "  The  flesh  profiteth 
nothing  ;  the  words  that  I  speak  to  you,  they  are  spirit 
and  they  are  life." 


THE   LORD'S   SUPPER.  15 

Whilst  I  am  upon  this  topic,  I  cannot  help  remark- 
ing that  it  is  not  a  little  singular  that  we  should  have 
preserved  this  rite  and  insisted  upon  perpetuating  one 
symbolical  act  of  Christ  wliilst  we  have  totally  neg- 
lected all  others,  —  particularly  one  other  which  had  at 
least  an  equal  claim  to  our  observance.  Jesus  washed 
the  feet  of  his  disciples  and  told  them  that,  as  he  had 
washed  their  feet,  they  ought  to  wash  one  another's 
feet ;  for  he  had  given  them  an  example,  that  they  should 
do  as  he  had.  done  to  them.  I  ask  any  person  who  be- 
lieves the  Supper  to  have  been  designed  by  Jesus  to  be 
commemorated  forever,  to  go  and  read  the  account  of 
it  in  the  other  Gospels,  and  then  compare  with  it  the 
account  of  this  transaction  in  St.  John,  and  tell  me  if 
this  be  not  much  more  explicitly  authorized  than  the 
Supper.  It  only  differs  in  this,  that  we  have  found  the 
Supper  used  in  New  England  and  the  washing  of  the 
feet  not.  But  if  we  had  found  it  an  established  rite  in 
our  churches,  on  grounds  of  mere  authority,  it  would 
have  been  impossible  to  have  argued  against  it.  That 
rite  is  used  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  by  the  Sande- 
manians.  It  has  been  very  properly  dropped  by  other 
Christians.  Why  ?  For  two  reasons  :  (1)  because  it 
was  a  local  custom,  and  unsuitable  in  western  countries ; 
and  (2)  because  it  was  typical,  and  all  understood  that 
humility  is  the  thing  signified.  But  the  Passover  was 
local  too,  and  does  not  concern  us,  and  its  bread  and 
wine  were  typical,  and  do  not  help  us  to  understand  the 
redemption  which  they  signified.  These  views  of  the 
original  account  of  the  Lord's  Supper  lead  me  to  esteem 
it  an  occasion  full  of  solemn  and  prophetic  interest, 
but  never  intended  by  Jesus  to  be  the  foundation  of  a 
perpetual  institution. 


16  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

It  appears,  however,  in  Christian  history  that  the  dis- 
ciples had  very  early  taken  advantage  of  these  impres- 
sive words  of  Christ  to  hold  religious  meetings,  where 
they  broke  bread  and  drank  wine  as  symbols.  I  look 
upon  this  fact  as  very  natural  in  the  circumstances  of 
the  Church.  The  disciples  lived  together  ;  they  threw 
all  their  property  into  a  common  stock  ;  they  were 
bound  together  by  the  memory  of  Christ,  and  nothing 
could  be  more  natural  than  that  this  eventful  evening 
should  be  affectionately  remembered  by  them ;  that 
they,  Jews  like  Jesus,  should  adopt  his  expressions  and 
his  types,  and  furthermore,  that  what  was  done  with 
peculiar  propriety  by  them,  his  personal  friends,  with 
less  propriety  should  come  to  be  extended  to  their  com- 
panions also.  In  this  way  religious  feasts  grew  up 
among  the  early  Christians.  They  were  readily  adopted 
by  the  Jewish  converts  who  were  familiar  with  re- 
ligious feasts,  and  also  by  the  Pagan  converts  whose 
idolatrous  worship  had  been  made  up  of  sacred  festi- 
vals, and  who  very  readily  abused  these  to  gross  riot, 
as  appears  from  the  censures  of  St.  Paul.  Many  per- 
sons consider  this  fact,  the  observance  of  such  a  memo- 
rial feast  by  the  early  disciples,  decisive  of  the  question 
whether  it  ought  to  be  observed  by  us.  There  was 
good  reason  for  his  personal  friends  to  remember  their 
friend  and  repeat  his  words.  It  was  only  too  probable 
that  among  the  half-converted  Pagans  and  Jews,  any 
rite,  any  form,  would  find  favor,  whilst  yet  unable  to 
comprehend  the  spiritual  character  of  Christianity. 

The  circumstance,  however,  that  St.  Paul  adopts 
these  views,  has  seemed  to  many  persons  conclusive  in 
favor  of  the  institution.  I  am  of  opinion  that  it  is 
wholly  upon  the  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  and  not  upou 


THE   LORD'S   SUPPER.  17 

the  Gospels,  that  the  ordinance  stands.  Upon  this  mat- 
ter of  St.  Paul's  view  of  the  Supper,  a  few  important 
considerations  must  be  stated. 

The  end  which  he  has  in  view  in  the  eleventh  chap- 
ter of  the  first  Epistle,  is  not  to  enjoin  upon  his  friends 
to  observe  the  Supper,  but  to  censure  their  abuse  of  it. 
We  quote  the  passage  nowadays  as  if  it  enjoined  at- 
tendance upon  the  Supper  ;  but  he  wrote  it  merely  to 
chide  them  for  drunkenness.  To  make  their  enormity 
plainer  he  goes  back  to  the  origin  of  this  religious  feast 
to  show  what  sort  of  feast  that  was,  out  of  which  this 
riot  of  theirs  came,  and  so  relates  the  transactions  of 
the  Last  Supper.  "  I  have  received  of  the  Lord,"  he 
says,  "  that  which  I  delivered  to  you."  By  this  expres- 
sion it  is  often  thought  that  a  miraculous  communica- 
tion is  implied  ;  but  certainly  without  good  reason,  if 
it  is  remembered  that  St.  Paul  was  living  in  the  life- 
time of  all  the  apostles  who  could  give  him  an  account 
of  the  transaction  ;  and  it  is  contrary  to  all  reason  to 
suppose  that  God  should  work  a  miracle  to  convey  in- 
formation that  could  so  easily  be  got  by  natural  means. 
So  that  the  import  of  the  expression  is  that  he  had  re- 
ceived the  story  of  an  eye-witness  such  as  we  also  pos- 
sess. 

But  there  is  a  material  circumstance  which  dimin- 
ishes our  confidence  in  the  correctness  of  the  Apostle's 
view  ;  and  that  is,  the  observation  that  his  mind  had 
not  escaped  the  prevalent  error  of  the  primitive  church, 
the  belief,  namely,  that  the  second  coming  of  Christ 
would  shortly  occur,  until  which  time,  he  tells  them,  this 
feast  was  to  be  kept.  Elsewhere  he  tells  them  that  at 
that  time  the  world  would  be  burnt  up  with  fire,  and  a 
uew  government  established,  in  which  the  Saints  would 
2 


18  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

sit  on  thrones  ;  so  slow  were  the  disciples  during  the 
life  and  after  the  ascension  of  Christ,  to  receive  the 
idea  which  we  receive,  that  his  second  coming  was  a 
spiritual  kingdom,  the  dominion  of  his  religion  in  the 
hearts  of  men,  to  be  extended  gradually  over  the  whole 
world.  In  this  manner  we  may  see  clearly  enough  how 
this  ancient  ordinance  got  its  footing  among  the  early 
Christians,  and  this  single  expectation  of  a  speedy  re- 
appearance of  a  temporal  Messiah,  which  kept  its  influ- 
ence even  over  so  spiritual  a  man  as  St.  Paul,  would 
naturally  tend  to  preserve  the  use  of  the  rite  when  once 
established. 

We  arrive  then  at  this  conclusion  :  first,  that  it  does 
not  appear,  from  a  careful  examination  of  the  account 
of  the  Last  Supper  in  the  Evangelists,  that  it  was  de- 
signed by  Jesus  to  be  perpetual  ;  secondly,  that  it  does 
not  appear  that  the  opinion  of  St.  Paul,  all  things  con- 
sidered, ought  to  alter  our  opinion  derived  from  the 
Evangelists. 

One  general  remark  before  quitting  this  branch  of 
this  subject.  We  ought  to  be  cautious  in  taking  even 
the  best  ascertained  opinions  and  practices  of  the  primi- 
tive church,  for  our  own.  If  it  could  be  satisfactorily 
shown  that  they  esteemed  it  authorized  and  to  be  trans- 
mitted forever,  that  does  not  settle  the  question  for  us. 
We  know  how  inveterately  they  were  attached  to  their 
Jewish  prejudices,  and  how  often  even  the  influence  of 
Christ  failed  to  enlarge  their  views.  On  every  other 
subject  succeeding  times  have  learned  to  form  a  judg- 
ment more  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity 
than  was  the  practice  of  the  early  ages. 

II.  But  it  is  said  :  "  Admit  that  the  rite  was  not  de- 
signed to  be  perpetual.  What  harm  doth  it  ?  Here  it 


THE   LORD.'S   SUPPER.  19 

stands,  generally  accepted,  under  some  form,  by  the 
Christian  world,  the  undoubted  occasion  of  much  good  ; 
is  it  not  better  it  should  remain  ?  "  This  is  the  question 
of  expediency. 

I  proceed  to  state  a  few  objections  that  in  my  judg- 
ment lie  against  its  use  in  its  present  form. 

1.  If  the  view  which  I  have  taken  of  the  history  of 
the  institution  be  correct,  then  the  claim  of  authority 
should  be  dropped  in  administering  it.     You  say,  every 
time  you  celebrate  the  rite,  that  Jesus  enjoined  it ;   and 
the  whole  language  you  use  conveys  that  impression. 
But  if  you  read  the  New  Testament  as  I  do,  you  do  not 
believe  he  did. 

2.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  use  of  this  ordinance 
tends  to  produce  confusion  in  our  views  of  the  relation 
of  the  soul  to  God.     It  is  the  old  objection  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity,  —  that  the  true  worship  was  trans- 
ferred from  God  to  Christ,  or  that  such  confusion  was 
introduced  into  the  soul  that  an  undivided  worship  was 
given  nowhere.     Is  not  that  the  effect  of  the   Lord's 
Supper  ?     I  appeal  now  to  the  convictions  of  communi- 
cants, and  ask  such  persons  whether  they  have  not  been 
occasionally  conscious  of  a  painful  confusion  of  thought 
between  the  worship  due  to  God  and  the  commemora- 
tion due  to  Christ.    For  the  service  does  not  stand  upon 
the  basis  of  a  voluntary  act,  but  is  imposed  by  author- 
ity.    It  is  an  expression  of  gratitude  to  Christ,  enjoined 
by  Christ.    There  is  an  endeavor  to  keep  Jesus  in  mind, 
whilst  yet  the  prayers  are  addressed  to  God.     I  fear  it 
is  the  effect  of  this  ordinance  to  clothe  Jesus  with  an 
authority  which  he  never  claimed  and  which  distracts 
the   mind   of   the    worshipper.     I    know   our   opinions 
differ  much  respecting  the  nature  and  offices  of  Christ, 


20  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

and  the  degree  of  veneration  to  which  he  is  entitled.  1 
am  so  much  a  Unitarian  as  this  :  that  I  believe  the  hu- 
man mind  can  admit  but  one  God,  and  that  every  ef- 
fort to  pay  religious  homage  to  more  than  one  being, 
goes  to  take  away  all  right  ideas.  I  appeal,  brethren, 
to  your  individual  experience.  In  the  moment  when 
you  make  the  least  petition  to  God,  though  it  be  but  a 
silent  wish  that  he  may  approve  you,  or  add  one  mo- 
ment to  your  life,  —  do  you  not,  in  the  very  act,  neces- 
sarily exclude  all  other  beings  from  your  thought  ?  In 
that  act,  the  soul  stands  alone  with  God,  and  Jesus  is 
no  more  present  to  your  mind  than  your  brother  or 
your  child. 

But  is  not  Jesus  called  in  Scripture  the  Mediator  ? 
He  is  the  mediator  in  that  only  sense  in  which  possibly 
any  being  can  mediate  between  God  and  man,  —  that 
is,  an  instructor  of  man.  He  teaches  us  how  to  become 
like  God.  And  a  true  disciple  of  Jesus  will  receive  the 
light  he  gives  most  thankfully  ;  but  the  thanks  he  of- 
fers, and  which  an  exalted  being  will  accept,  are  not 
compliments,  commemorations,  but  the  use  of  that  in- 
struction. 

3.  Passing  other  objections,  I  come  to  this,  that  the 
use  of  the  elements,  however  suitable  to  the  people  and 
the  modes  of  thought  in  the  East,  where  it  originated, 
is  foreign  and  unsuited  to  affect  us.  Whatever  long 
usage  and  strong  association  may  have  done  in  some  in- 
dividuals to  deaden  this  repulsion,  I  apprehend  that 
their  use  is  rather  tolerated  than  loved  by  any  of  us. 
We  are  not  accustomed  to  express  our  thoughts  or  emo- 
tions by  symbolical  actions.  Most  men  find  the  bread 
and  wine  no  aid  to  devotion,  and  to  some  it  is  a  painful 
Impediment.  To  eat  bread  is  one  thing ;  to  love  the 


THE   LORD'S   SUPPER.  21 

• 

precepts  of  Christ  and  resolve  to  obey  them  is  quite 
another. 

The  statement  of  this  objection  leads  me  to  say  that 
I  think  this  difficulty,  wherever  it  is  felt,  to  be  entitled 
to  the  greatest  weight.  It  is  alone  a  sufficient  objec- 
tion to  the  ordinance.  It  is  my  own  objection.  This 
mode  of  commemorating  Christ  is  not  suitable  to  me. 
That  is  reason  enough  why  I  should  abandon  it.  If 
I  believed  it  was  enjoined  by  Jesus  on  his  disciples, 
and  that  he  even  contemplated  making  permanent  this 
mode  of  commemoration,  every  way  agreeable  to  an 
Eastern  mind,  and  yet  on  trial  it  was  disagreeable  to 
my  own  feelings,  I  should  not  adopt  it.  I  should 
choose  other  ways  which,  as  more  effectual  upon  me,  he 
would  approve  more.  For  I  choose  that  my  remem- 
brances of  him  should  be  pleasing,  affecting,  religious. 
I  will  love  him  as  a  glorified  friend,  after  the  free  way 
of  friendship,  and  not  ^>ay  him  a  stiff  sign  of  respect, 
as  men  do  those  whom  they  fear.  A  passage  read 
from  his  discourses,  a  moving  provocation  to  works  like 
his,  any  act  or  meeting  which  tends  to  awaken  a  pure 
thought,  a  flow  of  love,  an  original  design  of  virtue,  I 
call  a  worthy,  a  true  commemoration. 

4.  The  importance  ascribed  to  this  particular  ordinance 
is  not  consistent  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity.  The 
general  object  and  effect  of  the  ordinance  is  unexcep- 
tionable. It  has  been,  and  is,  I  doubt  not,  the  occasion 
of  indefinite  good  ;  but  an  importance  is  given  by  Chris- 
tians to  it  which  never  can  belong  to  any  form.  My 
friends,  the  apostle  well  assures  us  that  "  the  kingdom 
of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  I  am  not  so  foolish 
as  to  declaim  against  forms.  Forms  are  as  essential  as 


22  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

bodies  ;  but  to  exalt  particular  forms,  to  adhere  to  one 
form  a  moment  after  it  is  outgrown,  is  unreasonable, 
and  it  is  alien  to  the  spirit  of  Christ.  If  I  understand 
the  distinction  of  Christianity,  the  reason  why  it  is  to  be 
preferred  over  all  other  systems  and  is  divine  is  this,  that 
it  is  a  moral  system  ;  that  it  presents  men  with  truths 
which  are  their  own  reason,  and  enjoins  practices  that 
are  their  own  justification  ;  that  if  miracles  may  be  said 
to  have  been  its  evidence  to  the  first  Christians,  they 
are  not  its  evidence  to  us,  but  the  doctrines  themselves  ; 
that  every  practice  is  Christian  which  praises  itself,  and 
every  practice  unchristian  which  condemns  itself.  I 
am  not  engaged  to  Christianity  by  decent  forms,  or 
saving  ordinances  ;  it  is  not  usage,  it  is  not  what  I  do 
not  understand,  that  binds  me  to  it,  —  let  these  be  the 
sandy  foundations  of  falsehoods.  What  I  revere  and 
obey  in  it  is  its  reality,  its  boundless  charity,  its  deep 
interior  b'fe,  the  rest  it  gives  t9  mind,  the  echo  it  re- 
turns to  my  thoughts,  the  perfect  accord  it  makes  with 
my  reason  through  its  representation  of  God  and  His 
Providence  ;  and  the  persuasion  and  courage  that  come 
out  thence  to  lead  me  upward  and  onward.  Freedom 
is  the  essence  of  this  faith.  It  has  for  its  object  simply 
to  make  men  good  and  wise.  Its  institutions  then 
should  be  as  flexible  as  the  wants  of  men.  That  form 
out  of  which  the  life  and  suitableness  have  departed, 
should  be  as  worthless  in  its  eyes  as  the  dead  leaves 
that  are  falling  around  us. 

And  therefore,  although  for  the  satisfaction  of  others 
I  have  labored  to  show  by  the  history  that  this  rite  was 
not  intended  to  be  perpetual  ;  although  I  have  gone 
back  to  weigh  the  expressions  of  Paul,  I  feel  that  here 
is  the  true  point  of  view.  lu  the  midst  of  considera- 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  23 

tions  as  to  what  Paul  thought,  and  why  he  so  thought, 
I  caunot  help  feeling  that  it  is  time  misspent  to  argue 
to  or  from  his  convictions,  or  those  of  Luke  and  John, 
respecting  any  form.  I  seem  to  lose  the  substance  in 
seeking  the  shadow.  That  for  which  Paul  lived  and 
died  so  gloriously  ;  that  for  which  Jesus  gave  himself 
to  be  crucified  ;  the  end  that  animated  the  thousand 
martyrs  and  heroes  who  have  followed  his  steps,  was  to 
redeem  us  from  a  formal  religion,  and  teach  us  to  seek 
our  well-being  in  the  formation  of  the  soul.  The  whole 
world  was  full  of  idols  and  ordinances.  The  Jewish 
was  a  religion  of  forms  ;  it  was  all  body,  it  had  no  life, 
and  the  Almighty  God  was  pleased  to  qualify  and  send 
forth  a  man  to  teach  men  that  they  must  serve  him 
with  the  heart  ;  that  only  that  life  was  religious  which 
was  thoroughly  good  ;  that  sacrifice  was  smoke,  and 
forms  were  shadows.  This  man  lived  and  died  true  to 
this  purpose  ;  and  now,  with  his  blessed  word  and  life 
before  us,  Christians  must  contend  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
vital  importance,  —  really  a  duty,  to  commemorate  him 
by  a  certain  form,  whether  that  form  be  agreeable  to 
their  understandings  or  not.  Is  not  this  to  make  vain 
the  gift  of  God  ?  Is  not  this  to  turn  back  the  hand  on 
the  dial  ?  Is  not  this  to  make  men,  —  to  make  our- 
selves, —  forget  that  not  forms,  but  duties  ;  not  names, 
but  righteousness  and  love  are  enjoined  ;  and  that  in 
the  eye  of  God  there  is  no  other  measure  of  the  value 
of  any  one  form  than  the  measure  of  its  use  ? 

There  remain  some  practical  objections  to  the  ordi- 
nance, into  which  I  shall  not  now  enter.  There  is  one 
on  which  I  had  intended  to  say  a  few  words  ;  I  mean 
the  unfavorable  relation  in  which  it  places  that  numer- 
ous class  of  persons  who  abstain  from  it  merely  from 
disinclination  to  the  rite. 


24  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

Influenced  by  these  considerations,  I  have  proposed 
to  the  brethren  of  the  Church  to  drop  the  use  of  the 
elements  and  the  claim  of  authority  in  the  administra- 
tion of  this  ordinance,  and  have  suggested  a  mode  in 
which  a  meeting  for  the  same  purpose  might  be  held, 
free  of  objection. 

My  brethren  have  considered  my  views  with  patience 
and  candor,  and  have  recommended,  unanimously,  an 
adherence  to  the  present  form.  I  have  therefore  been 
compelled  to  consider  whether  it  becomes  me  to  ad- 
minister it.  I  am  clearly  of  opinion  I  ought  not.  This 
discourse  has  already  been  so  far  extended  that  I  can 
only  say  that  the  reason  of  my  determination  is  shortly 
this  : — It  is  my  desire,  in  the  office  of  a  Christian  min- 
ister, to  do  nothing  which  I  cannot  do  with  my  whole 
heart.  Having  said  this,  I  have  said  all.  I  have  no 
hostility  to  this  institution  ;  I  am  only  stating  my  want 
of  sympathy  with  it.  Neither  should  I  ever  have  ob- 
truded this  opinion  upon  other  people,  had  I  not  been 
called  by  my  office  to  administer  it.  That  is  the  end 
of  my  opposition,  that  I  am  not  interested  in  it.  I  am 
content  that  it  stand  to  the  end  of  the  world,  if  it  please 
men  and  please  Heaven,  and  I  shall  rejoice  in  all  the 
good  it  produces. 

As  it  is  the  prevailing  opinion  and  feeling  in  our  re- 
ligious community,  that  it  is  an  indispensable  part  of 
the  pastoral  office  to  administer  this  ordinance,  I  am 
about  to  resign  into  your  hands  that  office  which  you 
have  confided  to  me.  It  has  many  duties  for  which  I 
am  feebly  qualified.  It  has  some  which  it  will  always 
be  my  delight  to  discharge  according  to  my  ability, 
wherever  I  exist.  And  whilst  the  recollection  of  its 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  25 

claims  oppresses  me  with  a  sense  of  my  unworthiness, 
I  am  consoled  by  the  hope  that  no  time  and  no  change 
can  deprive  me  of  the  satisfaction  of  pursuing  and  ex- 
ercising its  highest  functions. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE, 


AT  CONCORD,  ON  THE  SECOND  CENTENNIAL  ANNIVERSARY 

OF  THE  INCORPORATION   OF  THE  TOWN, 

SEPTEMBER   12,  1835. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS  : 

The  town  of  Concord  begins,  this  day,  the  third  cen- 
tury of  its  history.  By  a  common  consent,  the  people 
of  New  England,  for  a  few  years  past,  as  the  second 
centennial  anniversary  of  each  of  its  early  settlements 
arrived,  have  seen  fit  to  observe  the  day.  You  have 
thought  it  becoming  to  commemorate  the  planting  of 
the  first  inland  town.  The  sentiment  is  just,  and  the 
practice  is  wise.  Our  ears  shall  not  be  deaf  to  the 
voice  of  time.  We  will  review  the  deeds  of  our  fathers, 
and  pass  that  just  verdict  on  them  we  expect  from  pos- 
terity on  our  own. 

And  yet,  in  the  eternity  of  nature,  how  recent  our 
antiquities  appear  !  The  imagination  is  impatient  of 
a  cycle  so  short.  Who  can  tell  how  many  thousand 
years,  every  day,  the  clouds  have  shaded  these  fields 
with  their  purple  awning  ?  The  river,  by  whose  banks 
most  of  us  were  born,  every  winter,  for  ages,  has  spread 
its  crust  of  ice  over  the  great  meadows  which,  in  ages, 
it  had  formed.  But  the  little  society  of  men  who  now, 
for  a  few  years,  fish  in  this  river,  plough  these  fields  it 
washes,  mow  the  grass  and  reap  the  corn,  shortly  shall 
hurry  from  its  banks  as  did  their  forefathers.  "  Man's 
life,"  said  the  Witan  to  the  Saxon  king,  "  is  the  sparrow 


30  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

that  enters  at  a  window,  flutters  round  the  house,  and 
flies  out  at  another,  and  none  knoweth  whence  he  came, 
or  whither  he  goes."  The  more  reason  that  we  should 
give  to  our  being  what  permanence  we  can  ;  —  that  we 
should  recall  the  Past,  and  expect  the  Future. 

Yet  the  race  survives  whilst  the  individual  dies.  In 
the  country,  without  any  interference  of  the  law,  the 
agricultural  life  favors  the  permanence  of  families. 
Here  are  still  around  me  the  lineal  descendants  of 
the  first  settlers  of  this  town.  Here  is  Blood,  Flint, 
Willard,  Meriam,  Wood,  Hosmer,  Barrett,  Wheeler, 
Jones,  Brown,  Buttrick,  Brooks,  Stow,  Hoar,  Heywood, 
Hunt,  Miles,  —  the  names  of  the  inhabitants  for  the 
first  thirty  years  ;  and  the  family  is  in  many  cases  rep- 
resented, when  the  name  is  not.  If  the  name  of  Bulke- 
ley  is  wanting,  the  honor  you  have  done  me  this  day, 
in  making  me  your  organ,  testifies  your  persevering 
kindness  to  his  blood. 

I  shall  not  be  expected,  on  this  occasion,  to  repeat 
the  details  of  that  oppression  which  drove  our  fathers 
out  hither.  Yet  the  town  of  Concord  was  settled  by 
a  party  of  non-conformists,  immediately  from  Great 
Britain.  The  best  friend  the  Massachusetts  colony 
had,  though  much  against  his  will,  was  Archbishop 
Laud  in  England.  In  consequence  of  his  famous  proc- 
lamation setting  up  certain  novelties  in  the  rites  of 
public  worship,  fifty  godly  ministers  were  suspended 
for  contumacy,  in  the  course  of  two  years  and  a  half. 
Hindered  from  speaking,  some  of  these  dared  to  print 
the  reasons  of  their  dissent,  and  were  punished  with 
imprisonment  or  mutilation.1  This  severity  brought 
some  of  the  best  men  in  England  to  overcome  that  nat* 
1  Neal's  Histoi-y  of  New  Engfntid,  vol.  i.  p.  132. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    31 

ural  repugnance  to  emigration  which  holds  the  serious 
and  moderate  of  every  nation  to  their  own  soil.  Among 
the  silenced  clergymen  was  a  distinguished  minister 
of  Woodhill,  in  Bedfordshire,  Rev.  Peter  Bulkeley,  de- 
scended from  a  noble  family,  honored  for  his  own  vir- 
tues, his  learning  and  gifts  as  a  preacher,  and  adding 
to  his  influence  the  weight  of  a  large  estate.1  Persecu- 
tion readily  knits  friendship  between  its  victims.  Mr. 
Bulkeley  having  turned  his  estate  into  money  and  set  his 
face  towards  New  England,  was  easily  able  to  persuade 
a  good  number  of  planters  to  join  him.  They  arrived 
in  Boston  in  1634. 2  Probably  there  had  been  a  previ- 
ous correspondence  with  Governor  Winthrop,  and  an 
agreement  that  they  should  settle  at  Musketaquid. 
With  them  joined  Mr.  Simon  Willard,  a  merchant  from 
Kent  in  England.  They  petitioned  the  General  Court 
for  a  grant  of  a  township,  and  on  the  2d  of  September, 
1635,  corresponding  in  New  Style  to  12th  September, 
two  hundred  years  ago  this  day,  leave  to  begin  a  plan- 
tation at  Musketaquid  was  given  to  Peter  Bulkeley, 
Simon  Willard,  and  about  twelve  families  more.  A 
month  later,  Rev.  John  Jones  and  a  large  number  of 
settlers  destined  for  the  new  town  arrived  in  Boston.8 

The  grant  of  the  General  Court  was  but  a  prelim- 
inary step.  The  green  meadows  of  Musketaquid  or 
Grassy  Brook  were  far  up  in  the  woods,  not  to  be 
reached  without  a  painful  and  dangerous  journey 
through  an  uninterrupted  wilderness.  They  could 
cross  the  Massachusetts  or  Charles  River,  by  the  ferry 
at  Newtown  ;  they  could  go  up  the  river  as  far  as 

1  Neal's  History  of  New  England,  vol.  i.  p.  321. 

2  Shattuck's  History  of  Concord,  p.  158. 
8  Shattuck,  p.  5. 


32  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

Watertown.  But  the  Indian  paths  leading  up  and 
down  the  country  were  a  foot  broad.  They  must  then 
plunge  into  the  thicket,  and  with  their  axes  cut  a  road 
for  their  teams,  with  their  women  and  children  and 
their  household  stuff,  forced  to  take  long  circuits  too, 
to  avoid  hills  and  swamps.  Edward  Johnson  of  Wo- 
burn  has  described  in  an  affecting  narrative  their  la- 
bors by  the  way.  "  Sometimes  passing  through  thickets 
where  their  hands  are  forced  to  make  way  for  their 
bodies'  passage,  and  their  feet  clambering  over  the 
crossed  trees,  which  when  they  missed,  they  sunk  into 
an  uncertain  bottom  in  water,  and  wade  up  to  their 
knees,  tumbling  sometimes  higher,  sometimes  lower. 
At  the  end  of  this,  they  meet  a  scorching  plain,  yet  not 
so  plain  but  that  the  ragged  bushes  scratch  their  legs 
foully,  even  to  wearing  their  stockings  to  their  bare 
skin  in  two  or  three  hours.  Some  of  them,  having  no 
leggins,  have  had  the  blood  trickle  down  at  every  step. 
And  in  time  of  summer,  the  sun  casts  such  a  reflecting 
heat  from  the  sweet  fern,  whose  scent  is  very  strong, 
that  some  nearly  fainted."  They  slept  on  the  rocks, 
wherever  the  night  found  them.  Much  time  was  lost 
in  travelling  they  knew  not  whither,  when  the  sun  was 
hidden  by  clouds  ;  for  "  their  compass  miscarried  in 
crowding  through  the  bushes,"  and  the  Indian  paths, 
once  lost,  they  did  not  easily  find. 

Johnson,  relating  undoubtedly  what  he  had  himself 
heard  from  the  pilgrims,  intimates  that  they  consumed 
many  days  in  exploring  the  country,  to  select  the  best 
place  for  the  town.  Their  first  temporary  accommoda- 
tion was  rude  enough.  "  After  they  have  found  a  place 
of  abode,  they  burrow  themselves  in  the  earth  for  their 
first  shelter,  under  a  hill-side,  and  casting  the  soil  aloft 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    33 

trpon  timbers,  they  make  a  fire  against  the  earth,  at  the 
highest  side.  And  thus  these  poor  servants  of  Christ 
provide  shelter  for  themselves,  their  wives  and  little 
ones,  keeping  off  the  short  showers  from  their  lodgings, 
but  the  long  rains  penetrate  through,  to  their  great  dis- 
turbance in  the  night  season.  Yet  in  these  poor  wig- 
wams they  sing  psalms,  pray  and  praise  their  God,  till 
they  can  provide  them  houses,  which  they  could  not 
ordinarily,  till  the  earth,  by  the  Lord's  blessing,  brought 
forth  bread  to  feed  them.  This  they  attain  with  sore 
travail,  every  one  that  can  lift  a  hoe  to  strike  into  the 
earth,  standing  stoutly  to  his  labors,  and  tearing  up  the 
roots  and  bushes  from  the  ground,  which,  the  first  year, 
yielded  them  a  lean  crop,  till  the  sod  of  the  earth  was 
rotten,  and  therefore  they  were  forced  to  cut  their 
bread  very  thin  for  a  long  season.  But  the  Lord  is 
pleased  to  provide  for  them  great  store  of  fish  in  the 
spring  time,  and  especially  alewives,  about  the  bigness 
of  a  herring." l  These  served  them  also  for  manure. 
For  flesh,  they  looked  not  for  any,  in  those  times,  unless 
they  could  barter  with  the  Indians  for  venison  and  rac- 
coons. "  Indian  corn,  even  the  coarsest,  made  as  pleas- 
ant meal  as  rice."  8  All  kinds  of  garden  fruits  grew 
well,  "and  let  no  man,"  writes  our  pious  chronicler, 
in  another  place,  "  make  a  jest  of  pumpkins,  for  with 
this  fruit  the  Lord  was  pleased  to  feed  his  people  until 
their  corn  and  cattle  were  increased."  8 

The  great  cost  of  cattle,  and  the  sickening  of  their 
cattle  upon  such  wild  fodder  as  was  never  cut  before  ; 

1  Johnson's  Wonder  -  Working    Proridmcc,   chap.    xxxv.      I    have 
abridged  and  slightly  altered   some  sentence?. 

2  Mourt,  Beginning  of  Plymouth,  1621,  p  60. 

3  Johnson,  p.  56. 

3 


34  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

the  loss  of  their  sheep  and  swine  by  wolves  ;  tho  suffer- 
ings of  the  people  in  the  great  snows  and  cold  soon  fol- 
lowing ;  and  the  fear  of  the  Pequots  ;  are  the  other 
disasters  enumerated  by  the  historian. 

The  hardships  of  the  journey  and  of  the  first  en- 
campment, are  certainly  related  by  their  contemporary 
with  some  air  of  romance,  yet  they  can  scarcely  be  ex- 
aggerated. A  march  of  a  number  of  families  with 
their  stuff,  through  twenty  miles  of  unknown  forest, 
from  a  little  rising  town  that  had  not  much  to  spare,  to 
an  Indian  town  in  the  wilderness  that  had  nothing,  must 
be  laborious  to  all,  and  for  those  who  were  new  to  the 
country  and  bred  in  softness,  a  formidable  adventure. 
But  the  pilgrims  had  the  preparation  of  an  armed  mind, 
better  than  any  hardihood  of  body.  And  the  rough 
welcome  which  the  new  land  gave  them  was  a  fit  intro- 
duction to  the  life  they  must  lead  in  it. 

But  what  was  their  reception  at  Musketaquid  ?  This 
was  an  old  village  of  the  Massachusetts  Indians.  Ta- 
hattawan,  the  Sachem,  with  Waban  his  son-in-law, 
lived  near  Nashawtuck,  now  Lee's  Hill.1  Their  tribe, 
once  numerous,  the  epidemic  had  reduced.  Here  they 
planted,  hunted  and  fished.  The  moose  was  still  trot- 
ting in  the  country,  and  of  his  sinews  they  made  their 
bowstring.  Of  the  pith  elder,  that  still  grows  beside 
our  brooks,  they  made  their  arrow.  Of  the  Indian 
Hemp  they  spun  their  nets  and  lines  for  summer  angling, 
and,  in  winter,  they  sat  around  holes  in  the  ice,  catching 
salmon,  pickerel,  breams  and  perch,  with  which  our 
river  abounded.2  Their  physical  powers,  as  our  fathers 
found  them,  and  before  yet  the  English  alcohol  had 

1  Shattuck,  p.  3. 

*  Josselyn's  Voyages  to  New  England,  1638. 


SECOND   CENTENNIAL    OF   CONCORD.          35 

proved  more  fatal  to  them  than  the  English  sword,  as- 
tonished the  white  men.1  Their  sight  was  so  excellent, 
that,  standing  on  the  sea  shore,  they  often  told  of  the 
coming  of  a  ship  at  sea,  sooner  by  one  hour,  yea,  two 
hours'  sail,  than  any  Englishman  that  stood  by,  on  pur- 
pose to  look  out.'2  Roger  Williams  affirms  that  he  has 
known  them  run  between  eighty  and  a  hundred  miles 
in  a  summer's  day,  and  back  again  within  two  days.  A 
little  pounded  parched  corn  or  no-cake,  sufficed  them 
on  the  march.  To  his  bodily  perfection,  the  wild  man 
added  some  noble  traits  of  character.  He  was  open  as 
a  child  to  kindness  and  justice.  Many  instances  of  his 
humanity  were  known  to  the  Englishmen  who  suffered 
in  the  woods  from  sickness  or  cold.  "  When  you  came 
over  the  morning  waters,"  said  one  of  the  Sachems, 
"  we  took  you  into  our  arms.  We  fed  you  with  our  best 
meat.  Never  went  white  man  cold  and  hungry  from 
Indian  wigwam." 

The  faithful  dealing  and  brave  good-will,  which,  dur- 
ing the  life  of  the  friendly  Massasoit,  they  uniformly 
experienced  at  Plymouth  and  at  Boston,  went  to  their 
hearts.  So  that  the  peace  was  made,  and  the  ear  of 
the  savage  already  secured,  before  the  pilgrims  arrived 
at  his  seat  of  Musketaquid,  to  treat  with  him  for  his 
lands. 

It  is  said  that  the  covenant  made  with  the  Indians  by 
Mr.  Bulkeley  and  Major  Willard,  was  made  under  a 
great  oak,  formerly  standing  near  the  site  of  the  Mid- 
dlesex Hotel.8  Our  Records  affirm  that  Squaw  Sachem, 
Tahattawan,  and  Kimrod  did  sell  a  tract  of  six  miles 

i  Hutchinson's  History  of  Masisachiiiselts,  vol.  i.  chap.  6. 
*  Thomas  Morton  ;  A'ew  England  Canaan,  p.  47. 
»  Shattuck,  p.  6. 


36  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

square  to  the  English,  receiving  for  the  same,  some 
fathoms  of  Wampumpeag,  hatchets,  hoes,  knives,  cotton 
cloth  and  shirts.  Wibbacowet,  the  husband  of  Squaw 
Sachem,  received  a  suit  of  cloth,  a  hat,  a  white  linen 
band,  shoes,  stockings  and  a  great  coat ;  and,  in  con- 
clusion, the  said  Indians  declared  themselves  satisfied, 
and  told  the  Englishmen  they  were  welcome.  And 
after  the  bargain  was  concluded,  Mr.  Simon  Willard, 
pointing  to  the  four  corners  of  the  world,  declared  that 
they  had  bought  three  miles  from  that  place,  east,  west, 
north  and  south.1 

The  Puritans,  to  keep  the  remembrance  of  their 
unity  one  with  another,  and  of  their  peaceful  compact 
with  the  Indians,  named  their  forest  settlement  CON- 
CORD. They  proceeded  to  build,  under  the  shelter  of 
the  hill  that  extends  for  a  mile  along  the  north  side  of 
the  Boston  road,  their  first  dwellings.  The  labors  of  a 
new  plantation  were  paid  by  its  excitements.  I  seem 
to  see  them,  with  their  pious  pastor,  addressing  them- 
selves to  the  work  of  clearing  the  land.  Natives  of 
another  hemisphere,  they  beheld,  with  curiosity,  all  the 
pleasing  features  of  the  American  forest.  The  land- 
scape before  them  was  fair,  if  it  was  strange  and  rude. 
The  little  flower  which  at  this  season  stars  our  woods 
and  road  sides  with  its  profuse  blooms,  might  attract 
even  eyes  as  stern  as  theirs  with  its  humble  beauty. 
The  useful  pine  lifted  its  cones  into  the  frosty  air. 
The  maple  which  is  already  making  the  forest  gay  with 
its  orange  hues,  reddened  over  those  houseless  men. 
The  majestic  summits  of  Wachusett  and  Monad  noc 
towering  in  the  horizon,  invited  the  steps  of  adventure 
westward. 

»  Depositions  taken  in  1684,  and  copied  iu  the  first  volume  of  the 
Town  Records. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.     37 

As  the  season  grew  later,  they  felt  its  inconveniences. 
"  Many  were  forced  •  to  go  barefoot  and  bareleg,  and 
some  in  time  of  frost  and  snow,  yet  were  they  more 
healthy  than  now  they  are." 1  The  land  was  low  but 
healthy  ;  and  if,  in  common  with  all  the  settlements, 
they  found  the  air  of  America  very  cold,  they  might 
say  with  Higginson,  after  his  description  of  the  other 
elements,  that  "  New  England  may  boast  of  the  ele- 
ment of  fire,  more  than  all  the  rest ;  for  all  Europe  is 
not  able  to  afford  to  make  so  great  fires  as  New  Eng- 
land. A  poor  servant,  that  is  to  possess  but  fifty  acres, 
may  afford  to  give  more  wood  for  fire  as  good  as  the 
world  yields,  than  many  noblemen  in  England."  2  Many 
were  their  wants,  but  more  their  privileges.  The  light 
struggled  in  through  windows  of  oiled  paper,3  but  they 
read  the  word  of  God  by  it.  They  were  fain  to  make 
use  of  their  knees  for  a  table,  but  their  limbs  were  their 
own.  Hard  labor  and  spare  diet  they  had,  and  off 
wooden  trenchers,  but  they  had  peace  and  freedom,  and 
the  wailing  of  the  tempest  in  the  woods  sounded  kind- 
lier in  their  ear  than  the  smooth  voice  of  the  prelates, 
at  home,  in  England.  "  There  is  no  people,"  said  their 
pastor  to  his  little  flock  of  exiles,  "but  will  strive  to  ex- 
cel in  something.  What  can  we  excel  in,  if  not  in  holi- 
ness ?  If  we  look  to  number,  we  are  the  fewest ;  if  to 
strength,  we  are  the  weakest  ;  if  to  wealth  and  riches, 
we  are  the  poorest  of  all  the  people  of  God  through  the 
whole  world.  We  cannot  excel  nor  so  much  as  equal 
other  people  in  these  tilings  ;  and  if  we  come  short  in 
grace  and  holiness  too,  we  arc  the  most  despicable  peo- 

1  Johnson. 

*  New  England's  Plantation. 

»  E.  W.'s  Letter  in  Mourt,  162L 


38  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

pie  under  heaven.  Strive  we,  therefore,  herein  to  ex- 
cel, and  suffer  not  this  crown  to  be  taken  away  from 
us."  l  The  sermon  fell  into  good  and  tender  hearts  ; 
the  people  conspired  with  their  teacher.  Their  religion 
was  sweetness  and  peace  amidst  toil  and  tears.  And, 
as  we  are  informed,  "  the  edge  of  their  appetite  was 
greater  to  spiritual  duties  at  their  first  coming,  in  time 
of  wants,  than  afterwards." 

The  original  Town  Records,  for  the  first  thirty  years, 
are  lost.  We  have  records  of  marriages  and  deaths, 
beginning  nineteen  years  after  the  settlement  ;  and  cop- 
ies of  some  of  the  doings  of  the  town  in  regard  to  terri- 
tory, of  the  same  date.  But  the  original  distribution  of 
the  land,  or  an  account  of  the  principles  on  which  it 
was  divided,  are  not  preserved.  Agreeably  to  the  cus- 
tom of  the  times,  a  large  portion  was  reserved  to  the 
public,  and  it  appears  from  a  petition  of  some  new  com- 
ers, in  1643,  that  a  part  had  been  divided  among  the 
first  settlers  without  price,  on  the  single  condition  of 
improving  it.2  Other  portions  seem  to  have  been  suc- 
cessively divided  off  and  granted  to  individuals,  at  the 
rate  of  sixpence  or  a  shilling  an  acre.  But,  in  the  first 
years,  the  land  would  not  pay  the  necessary  public 
charges,  and  they  seem  to  have  fallen  heavily  on  the 
few  wealthy  planters.  Mr.  Bulkeley,  by  his  generosity, 
spent  his  estate,  and,  doubtless  in  consideration  of  his 
charges,  the  General  Court,  in  1639,  granted  him  300 
acres  towards  Cambridge  ;  and  to  Mr.  Spencer,  prob- 
ably for  the  like  reason,  300  acres  by  the  Alewife  River. 
In  1638,  1200  acres  were  granted  to  Governor  Win* 

1  Peter  Bulkeley's  Gospel  Covenant ;  Preached  at  Concord  in  N.  E, 
2d  Edition  ;  London,  1651,  p.  432. 
«  See  the  Petition  in  Shattuck,  p.  14. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.     39 

throp,  and  1000  to  Thomas  Dudley  of  the  lands  adja- 
cent to  the  town,  and  Governor  Winthrop  selected  as  a 
building  spot  the  land  near  the  house  of  Capt.  Hum- 
phrey Hunt.1  The  first  record  uow  remaining  is  that  of 
a  reservation  of  laud  for  the  minister,  and  the  appropri- 
ation of  new  lands  as  commons  or  pastures  to  some 
poor  men.  At  the  same  date,  in  1654,  the  town  having 
divided  itself  into  three  districts,  called  the  North, 
South  and  East  quarters,  Ordered,  "  that  the  North 
quarter  are  to  keep  and  maintain  all  their  highways 
and  bridges  over  the  great  river,  in  their  quarter,  and, 
in  respect  of  the  greatness  of  their  charge  thereabout, 
and  in  regard  of  the  ease  of  the  East  quarter  above  the 
rest,  in  their  highways,  they  are  to  allow  the  North 
quarter  £3."  2 

Fellow  Citizens,  this  first  recorded  political  act  of  our 
fathers,  this  tax  assessed  on  its  inhabitants  by  a  town, 
is  the  most  important  event  in  their  civil  history,  im- 
plying, as  it  does,  the  exercise  of  a  sovereign  power, 
and  connected  with  all  the  immunities  and  powers  of  a 
corporate  town  in  Massachusetts.  The  greater  speed 
and  success  that  distinguish  the  planting  of  the  human 
race  in  this  country,  over  all  other  plantations  in  his- 
tory, owe  themselves  mainly  to  the  new  subdivisions  of 
the  State  into  small  corporations  of  land  and  power. 
It  is  vain  to  look  for  the  inventor.  No  man  made 
them.  Each  of  the  parts  of  that  perfect  structure  grew 
out  of  the  necessities  of  an  instant  occasion.  The  germ 
was  formed  in  England.  The  charter  gave  to  the  free- 
men of  the  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  the  elec- 
tion of  the  Governor  and  Council  of  Assistants.  It 

i  Shattuck,  p.  14. 

*  Town  Record*;  Shattuck,  p.  34. 


40  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

moreover  gave  them  the  power  of  prescribing  the  man- 
ner in  which  freemen  should  be  elected  ;  and  ordered 
that  all  fundamental  laws  should  be  enacted  by  the 
freemen  of  the  colony.  But  the  Company  removed  to 
New  England  ;  more  than  one  hundred  freemen  were 
admitted  the  first  year,  and  it  was  found  inconvenient 
to  assemble  them  all.1  And  when,  presently,  the  de- 
sign of  the  colony  began  to  fulfil  itself,  by  the  settle- 
ment of  new  plantations  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  and 
parties,  with  grants  of  land,  straggled  into  the  country 
to  truck  with  the  Indians  and  to  clear  the  land  for  their 
own  benefit,  the  Governor  and  freemen  in  Boston  found 
it  neither  desirable  nor  possible  to  control  the  trade 
and  practices  of  these  farmers.  What  could  the  body 
of  freemen,  meeting  four  times  a  year,  at  Boston,  do 
for  the  daily  wants  of  the  planters  at  Musketaquid  ? 
The  wolf  was  to  be  killed  ;  the  Indian  to  be  watched 
and  resisted  ;  wells  to  be  dug  ;  the  forest  to  be  felled  ; 
pastures  to  be  cleared  ;  corn  to  be  raised  ;  roads  to  be 
cut  ;  town  and  farm  lines  to  be  run.  These  things 
must  be  done,  govern  who  might.  The  nature  of  man 
and  his  condition  in  the  world,  for  the  first  time  within 
the  period  of  certain  history,  controlled  the  formation 
of  the  State.  The  necessity  of  the  colonists  wrote  the 
law.  Their  wants,  their  poverty,  their  manifest  con- 
venience made  them  bold  to  ask  of  the  Governor  and  of 
the  General  Court,  immunities,  and,  to  certain  purposes, 
sovereign  powers.  The  townsmen's  words  were  heard 
and  weighed,  for  all  knew  that  it  was  a  petitioner  that 
could  not  be  slighted  ;  it  was  the  river,  or  the  winter, 
or  famine,  or  the  Pequots,  that  spoke  through  them  to 
the  Governor  and  Council  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  In- 
1  Bancroft;  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  3S9. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    41 

structed  by  necessity,  each  little  company  organized  it- 
self after  the  pattern  of  the  larger  town,  by  appointing 
its  constable,  and  other  petty  half-military  officers.  As 
early  as  1633,  *  the  office  of  townsman  or  selectman  ap- 
pears, who  seems  first  to  have  been  appointed  by  the 
General  Court,  as  here,  at  Concord,  ia  1639.  In  1G35, 
the  Court  say,  "  whereas  particular  towns  have  many 
things  which  concern  only  themselves,  it  is  Ordered, 
that  the  freemen  of  every  town  shall  have  power  to 
dispose  of  thsir  own  lands,  and  woods,  and  choose  their 
own  particular  officers."  2  This  pointed  chiefly  at  the 
office  of  constable,  but  they  soon  chose  their  own  select- 
men, and  very  early  assessed  taxes ;  a  power  at  first 
resisted,3  but  speedily  confirmed  to  them. 

Meantime,  to  this  paramount  necessity,  a  milder  and 
more  pleasing  influence  was  joined.  I  esteem  it  the 
happiness  of  this  country,  that  its  settlers,  whilst  they 
were  exploring  their  granted  and  natural  rights  and 
determining  the  power  of  the  magistrate,  were  united 
by  personal  affection.  Members  of  a  church  before 
whose  searching  covenant  all  rank  was  abolished,  they 
stood  in  awe  of  each  other,  as  religious  men.  They 
bore  to  John  Winthrop,  the  Governor,  a  grave  but 
hearty  kindness.  For  the  first  time,  men  examined  the 
powers  of  the  chief  whom  they  loved  and  revered. 
For  the  first  time,  the  ideal  social  compact  was  real. 
The  bands  of  love  and  reverence  held  fast  the  little 
state,  whilst  they  untied  the  great  cords  of  authority 
to  examine  their  soundness  and  learn  on  what  wheels 
they  ran.  They  were  to  settle  the  internal  constitu- 

i  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  i.  p.  114.    • 

«  Colony  Records,  vol.  i. 

3  See  Hutchinson's  Collection,  p.  287. 


42  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

tion  of  the  towns,  and,  at  the  same  time,  their  powei 
in  the  commonwealth.  The  Governor  conspires  with 
them  in  limiting  his  claims  to  their  obedience,  and 
values  much  more  their  love  than  his  chartered  author- 
ity. The  disputes  between  that  forbearing  man  and 
the  deputies  are  like  the  quarrels  of  girls,  so  much  do 
they  turn  upon  complaints  of  unkindness,  and  end  in 
such  loving  reconciliations.  It  was  on  doubts  concern- 
ing their  own  power,  that,  in  1634,  a  committee  repaired 
to  him  for  counsel,  and  he  advised,  seeing  the  freemen 
were  grown  so  numerous,  to  send  deputies  from  every 
town  once  in  a  year  to  revise  the  laws  and  to  assess  all 
monies.1  And  the  General  Court,  thus  constituted, 
only  needed  to  go  into  separate  session  from  the  coun- 
cil as  they  did  in  16  i4,2  to  become  essentially  the  same 
assembly  they  are  this  day. 

By  this  course  of  events,  Concord  and  the  other  plan- 
tations found  themselves  separate  and  independent  of 
Boston,  with  certain  rights  of  their  own,  which,  what 
they  were,  time  alone  could  fully  determine  ;  enjoying, 
at  the  same  time,  a  strict  and  loving  fellowship  with 
Boston,  and  sure  of  advice  and  aid,  011  every  emer- 
gency. Their  powers  were  speedily  settled  by  obvious 
convenience,  and  the  towns  learned  to  exercise  a  sov- 
ereignty in  the  laying  of  taxes  ;  in  the  choice  of  their 
deputy  to  the  house  of  representatives  ;  in  the  disposal 
of  the  town  lands  ;  in  the  care  of  public  worship,  the 
school  and  the  poor  ;  and,  what  seemed  of  at  least 
equal  importance,  to  exercise  the  right  of  expressing  an 
opinion  on  every  question  before  the  country.  In  a 
town-meeting,  the  great  secret  of  political  science  was 

1  Winthrop's  Journal,  vol.  i.  pp.  128,  129,  and  the  Editor's  Note. 

2  Wintkrop's  Journal,  vol.  ii.  p.  160. 


SECOND   CENTENNIAL   OF   CONCORD.  43 

uncovered,  and  the  problem  solved,  how  to  give  every 
individual  his  fair  weight  in  the  government,  without 
any  disorder  from  numbers.  In  a  town-meeting,  the 
roots  of  society  were  reached.  Here  the  rich  gave 
counsel,  but  the  poor  also  ;  and  moreover,  the  just  and 
the  unjust.  He  is  ill-informed  who  expects,  on  running 
down  the  town  records  for  two  hundred  years,  to  find 
a  chiu-ch  of  saints,  a  metropolis  of  patriots,  enacting 
wholesome  and  creditable  laws.  The  constitution  of 
the  towns  forbid  it.  In  thi?  open  democracy,  every 
opinion  had  utterance  ;  every  objection,  every  fact, 
every  acre  of  land,  every  bushel  of  rye,  its  entire 
weight.  The  moderator  was  the  passive  mouth-piece, 
and  the  vote  of  the  town,  like  the  vane  on  the  turret 
overhead,  free  for  every  wind  to  turn,  and  always 
turned  by  the  last  and  strongest  breath.  In  these  as- 
semblies, the  public  weal,  the  call  of  interest,  duty, 
religion,  were  heard  ;  and  every  local  feeling,  every 
private  grudge,  every  suggestion  of  petulance  and  ig- 
norance, were  not  less  faithfully  produced.  Wrath 
and  love  came  up  to  town-meeting  in  company.  By 
the  law  of  1641,  every  man,  —  freeman  or  not,  —  in- 
habitant or  not,  —  might  introduce  any  business  into  a 
public  meeting.  Not  a  complaint  occurs  in  all  the  vol- 
umes of  our  Records,  of  any  inhabitant  being  hindered 
from  speaking,  or  suffering  from  any  violence  or  usur- 
pation of  any  class.  The  negative  ballot  of  a  ten  shil- 
ling freeholder  was  as  fatal  as  that  of  the  honored 
owner  of  Blood's  Farms  or  Willard's  Purchase.  A 
man  felt  himself  at  liberty  to  exhibit,  at  town-meeting, 
feelings  and  actions  that  he  would  have  been  ashamed 
of  anywhere  but  amongst  his  neighbors.  Individual 
protests  are  frequent.  Peter  Wright  [1705]  desired 


44  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

his  dissent  might  be  recorded  from  the  town's  grant  to 
John  Shepard.1  In  1795,  several  town-meetings  are 
called,  upon  the  compensation  to  be  made  to  a  few 
proprietors  for  land  taken  in  making  a  bridle  road  ; 
and  one  of  them  demanding  large  damages,  many  of- 
fers were  made  him  in  town-meeting,  and  refused  ; 
"  which  the  town  thought  very  unreasonable."  The 
matters  there  debated  are  such  as  to  invite  very  small 
considerations.  The  ill-spelled  pages  of  the  town  rec- 
ords contain  the  result.  I  shall  be  excused  for  con- 
fessing that  I  have  set  a  value  upon  any  symptom  of 
meanness  and  private  pique  which  I  have  met  with  in 
these  antique  books,  as  proof  that  justice  was  done  ; 
that  if  the  results  of  our  history  are  approved  as  wise 
and  good,  it  was  yet  a  free  strife  ;  if  the  good  counsel 
prevailed,  the  sneaking  counsel  did  not  fail  to  be  sug- 
gested ;  freedom  and  virtue,  if  they  triumphed,  tri- 
umphed in  a  fair  field.  And  so  be  it  an  everlasting 
testimony  for  them,  and  so  much  ground  of  assurance 
of  man's  capacity  for  self-government. 

It  is  the  consequence  of  this  institution  that  not  a 
school-house,  a  public  pew,  a  bridge,  a  pound,  a  mill- 
dam  hath  been  set  up,  or  pulled  down,  or  altered,  or 
bought,  or  sold,  without  the  whole  population  of  this 
town  having  a  voice  in  the  affair.  A  general  content- 
ment is  the  result.  And  the  people  truly  feel  that  they 
are  lords  of  the  soil.  In  every  winding  road,  in  every 
stone  fence,  in  the  smokes  of  the  poor-house  chimney, 
in  the  clock  on  the  church,  they  read  their  own  power, 
and  consider,  at  leisure,  the  wisdom  and  error  of  their 
judgments. 

The  British  government  has  recently  presented  to 
1  Concord  Town  Records. 


SECOND   CF.NTENNIAL   OF   CONCORD.          45 

the  several  public  libraries  of  this  country,  copies  of  the 
splendid  edition  of  the  Domesday  Book,  and  other  an- 
cient public  Records  of  England.  I  cannot  but  think 
that  it  would  be  a  suitable  acknowledgment  of  this 
national  munificence,  if  the  records  of  one  of  our  towns, 
—  of  this  town,  for  example,  —  should  be  printed,  and 
presented  to  the  governments  of  Europe  ;  to  the  Eng- 
lish nation,  as  a  thank-offering,  and  as  a  certificate  of 
the  progress  of  the  Saxon  race  ;  to  the  continental  na- 
tions as  a  lesson  of  humanity  and  love.  Tell  them, 
the  Union  has  twenty-four  States,  and  Massachusetts 
is  one.  Tell  them,  Massachusetts  has  three  hundred 
towns,  and  Concord  is  one  ;  that  in  Concord  are  five 
hundred  rateable  polls,  and  every  one  has  an  equal  vote. 
About  ten  years  after  the  planting  of  Concord,  ef- 
forts began  to  be  made  to  civilize  the  Indians,  and  "  to 
win  them  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God."  This 
indeed,  in  so  many  words,  is  expressed  in  the  charter  of 
the  Colony  as  one  of  its  ends  ;  and  this  design  is  named 
first  in  the  printed  "  Considerations,"  1  that  inclined 
Hampden,  and  determined  Winthrop  and  his  friends, 
to  come  hither.  The  interest  of  the  Puritans  in  the 
natives  was  heightened  by  a  suspicion  at  that  time  pre- 
vailing, that  these  were  the  lost,  ten  tribes  of  Israel. 
The  man  of  the  woods  might  well  draw  on  himself  the 
compassion  of  the  planters.  His  erect  and  perfect 
form,  though  disclosing  some  irregular  virtues,  was 
found  joined  to  a  dwindled  soul.  Master  of  all  sorts 
of  wood-craft,  he  seemed  a  part  of  the  forest  and  the 
lake,  and  the  secret  of  his  amazing  skill  seemed  to  be 
that  he  partook  of  the  nature  and  fierce  instincts  of  the 
beasts  he  slew.  Those  who  dwelled  by  ponds  and  riv- 
*  Hutchinson's  Collection,  p.  27. 


46  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

crs  had  some  tincture  of  civility,  but  the  hunters  of  the 
tribe  were  found  intractable  at  catechism.  Thomas 
Hooker  anticipated  the  opinion  of  Humboldt,  and  called 
them  "the  ruins  of  mankind." 

Early  efforts  were  made  to  instruct  them,  in  which 
Mr.  Bulkeley,  Mr.  Flint  and  Capt.  Willard  took  an 
active  part.  In  1644,  Squaw  Sachem,  the  widow  of 
Nanepashemet,  the  great  Sachem  of  Concord  and  Mis- 
tic,  with  two  sachems  of  Wachusett,  made  a  formal  sub- 
mission to  the  English  government,  and  intimated  their 
desire,  "as  opportunity  served,  and  the  English  lived 
amo-.ig  them,  to  learn  to  read  God's  word  and  know 
God  aright ; "  and  the  General  Court  acted  on  their  re- 
quest.1 John  Eliot,  in  October,  1646,  preached  his  first 
sermon  in  the  Indian  language  at  Xoonantum  ;  Waban, 
Tahattawan,  and  their  sannaps  going  thither  from  Con- 
cord to  hear  him.  There,  under  the  rubbish  and  ruins 
of  barbarous  life,  the  human  heart  heard  the  voice  of 
love,  and  awoke  as  from  a  sleep.  The  questions  which 
the  Indians  put  betray  their  reason  and  their  ignorance. 
"  Can  Jesus  Christ  understand  prayers  in  the  Indian 
language  ?  "  "  If  a  man  be  wise,  and  his  sachem  weak, 
must  he  obey  him  ?  "  At  a  meeting  which  Eliot  gave 
to  the  squaws  apart,  the  wife  of  Wampooas  propounded 
the  question,  "  Whether  do  I  pray  when  my  husband 
prays,  if  I  speak  nothing  as  he  doth,  yet  if  I  like  what 
he  saith  ?  "  —  "  which  questions  were  accounted  of  by 
some,  as  part  of  the  whitenings  of  the  harvest  toward."  2 
Tahattawan,  our  Concord  sachem,  called  his  Indians  to- 
gether, and  bid  them  not  oppose  the  courses  which  the 
English  were  taking  for  their  good  ;  for,  said  he,  all  the 

i  Shattuck,  p.  20. 

1  Shepard'a  Clear  Sunshine  of  the  Gospel,  London,  1G48. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.     47 

time  you  have  lived  after  the  Indian  fashion,  under  the 
power  of  the  higher  sachems,  what  did  they  care  for 
you  ?  They  took  away  your  skins,  your  kettles  and 
your  wampum,  at  their  own  pleasure,  and  this  was  all 
they  regarded.  But  you  may  see  the  English  mind  no 
such  things,  but  only  seek  your  welfare,  and,  instead  of 
taking  away,  are  ready  to  give  to  you.  Tahattawan 
and  his  son-in-law  Waban,  besought  Eliot  to  come  and 
preach  to  them  at  Concord,  and  here  they  entered,  by 
his  assistance,  into  an  agreement  to  twenty-nine  rules, 
all  breathing  a  desire  to  conform  themselves  to  English 
customs.1  They  requested  to  have  a  town  given  them 
within  the  bounds  of  Concord,  near  unto  the  English. 
When  this  question  was  propounded  by  Tahattawan,  he 
was  asked,  why  he  desired  a  town  so  near,  when  there 
was  more  room  for  them  up  in  the  country  ?  The 
Sachem  replied,  that  he  knew  if  the  Indians  dwelt  far 
from  the  English,  they  would  not  so  much  care  to  pray, 
nor  could  they  be  so  ready  to  hear  the  word  of  God,  but 
would  be,  all  one,  Indians  still ;  but  dwelling  near  the 
English,  he  hoped  it  might  be  otherwise  with  them  then. 
We,  who  see  in  the  squalid  remnants  of  the  twenty 
tribes  of  Massachusetts,  the  final  failure  of  this  benevo- 
lent enterprise,  can  hardly  learn  without  emotion,  the 
earnestness  with  which  the  most  sensible  individuals  of 
the  copper  race  held  on  to  the  new  hope  they  had  con- 
ceived, of  being  elevated  to  equality  with  their  civilized 
brother.  It  is  piteous  to  see  their  self-distrust  in  their 
request  to  remain  near  the  English,  and  their  unani- 
mous entreaty  to  Capt.  Willard  to  be  their  Recorder* 
being  very  solicitous  that  what  they  did  agree  upon 
might  be  faithfully  kept  without  alteration.  It  was  re- 
1  See  them  in  Shattuck,  p.  22. 


48  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

markable  that  the  preaching  was  not  wholly  new  to 
them.  "  Their  forefathers,"  the  Indians  told  Eliot,  "  did 
know  God,  but  after  this,  they  fell  into  a  deep  sleep,  and 
when  they  did  awake,  they  quite  forgot  him." 1 

At  the  instance  of  Eliot,  in  1651,  their  desire  was 
granted  by  the  General  Court,  and  Nashobah,  lying 
near  Nagog  pond,  now  partly  in  Littleton,  partly  in  Ac- 
ton, became  an  Indian  town,  where  a  Christian  worship 
was  established  under  an  Indian  ruler  and  teacher.  a 
Wilson  relates,  that,  at  their  meetings,  "  the  Indiana 
sung  a  psalm,  made  Indian  by  Eliot,  in  one  of  our  ordi- 
nary English  tunes,  melodiously."  8  Such  was,  for  half 
a  century,  the  success  of  the  general  enterprise,  that,  in 
1676,  there  were  five  hundred  and  sixty-seven  praying 
Indians,  and  in  1689,  twenty-four  Indian  preachers,  and 
eighteen  assemblies. 

Meantime,  Concord  increased  in  territory  and  popula- 
tion. The  lands  were  divided  ;  highways  were  cut  from 
farm  to  farm,  and  from  this  town  to  Boston.  A  mili- 
tary company  had  been  organized  in  1636.  The  Pe- 
quots,  the  terror  of  the  farmer,  were  exterminated  in 
1637.  Capt.  Underbill,  in  1638,  declared,  that  "the 
new  plantations  of  Dedham  and  Concord  do  afford  large 
accommodation,  and  will  contain  abundance  of  people."  4 
In  1639,  our  first  selectmen,  Mr.  Flint,  L.  Willard  and 
Richard  Griffin  were  appointed.6  And,  in  1640,  when 
the  colony  rate  was  £1200,  Concord  was  assessed  £50. 6 
The  country  already  began  to  yield  more  than  was  con- 
sumed by  the  inhabitants.7  The  very  great  immigra- 

1  Sheparcl.p.  0.  «  Shattuck,  p.  10. 

8  Shattuck,  p.  27.  «  Winthrop,  vol.  ii.  p.  2. 

»  Wilson's  Letter,  1651.  '  Hutchinson,  vol.  i.  p.  90. 
4  Neivsfrom  America,  p.  22. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    49 

tion  from  England  made  the  lands  more  valuable  every 
year,  and  supplied  a  market  for  the  produce.  In  1643, 
the  colony  was  so  numerous,  that  it  became  expedient 
to  divide  it  into  four  counties,  Concord  being  included 
in  Middlesex.1  In  1644,  the  town  contained  sixty  fam- 
ilies. 

But,  in  1640,  all  immigration  ceased,  and  the  country 
produce  and  farm-stock  depreciated.2  Other  difficul- 
ties accrued.  The  fish,  which  had  been  the  abundant 
manure  of  the  settlers,  was  found  to  injure  the  land.3 
The  river,  at  this  period,  seems  to  have  caused  some 
distress  now  by  its  overflow,  now  by  its  drought.4  A 
cold  and  wet  summer  blighted  the  corn  ;  enormous 
flocks  of  pigeons  beat  down  and  eat  up  all  sorts  of  Eng- 
lish grain  ;  and  the  crops  suffered  much  from  mice.5 
New  plantations  and  better  land  had  been  opened,  far 
and  near  ;  and  whilst  many  of  the  colonists  at  Boston 
thought  to  remove,  or  did  remove  to  England,  the  Con- 
cord people  became  uneasy,  and  looked  around  for  new 
seats.  In  1643,  one  seventh  or  one  eighth  part  of  the 
inhabitants  went  to  Connecticut  with  Rev.  Mr.  Jones, 
and  settled  Fairfield.  Weakened  by  this  loss,  the 
people  begged  to  be  released  from  a  part  of  their  rates, 
to  which  the  General  Court  consented.8  Mr.  Bulkeley 
dissuaded  his  people  from  removing,  and  admonished 
them  to  increase  their  faith  with  their  griefs.  Even  this 
check  which  befell  them  acquaints  us  with  the  rapidity 
of  their  growth,  for  the  good  man,  in  dealing  with  his 

Hutchinson,  vol.  i.  p.  112. 
Winthrop,  vol.  ii.  p.  21. 
Hutchinson,  vol.  i.  p.  94. 
Bulkeley's  Gospel  Covenant,  p.  209. 
Winthrop,  vol.  ii.  p.  94. 
Shattuck,  p.  16. 
4 


50  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

people,  taxes  them  with  luxury.  "  We  pretended  to 
conic  hither,"  he  says,  "  for  ordinances  ;  but  now  ordi- 
nances are  light  matters  with  us  ;  we  are  turned  after 
the  prey.  We  have  among  us  excess  and  pride  of  life  ; 
pride  in  apparel,  daintiness  in  diet,  and  that  in  those 
who,  in  times  past,  would  have  been  satisfied  with 
bread.  This  is  the  sin  of  the  lowest  of  the  people.  "  *  Bet- 
ter evidence  could  not  be  desired  of  the  rapid  growth 
of  the  settlement. 

The  check  was  but  momentary.  The  earth  teemed 
with  fruits.  The  people  on  the  bay  built  ships,  and 
found  the  way  to  the  West  Indies,  with  pipe -staves, 
lumber  and  fish  ;  and  the  country  people  speedily 
learned  to  supply  themselves  with  sugar,  tea  and  mo- 
lasses. The  college  had  been  already  gathered  in  1638. 
Now  the  school  house  went  up.  The  General  Court,  in 
1647,  "  to  the  end  that  learning  may  not  be  buried  in 
the  graves  of  our  forefathers,  Ordered,  that  every  town- 
ship, after  the  Lord  had  increased  them  to  the  number 
of  fifty  house-holders,  shall  appoint  one  to  teach  all 
children  to  write  and  read  ;  and  where  any  town  shall 
increase  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  families,  they 
shall  set  up  a  Grammar  school,  the  masters  thereof 
being  able  to  instruct  youth  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted 
for  the  University." 2  With  these  requirements  Con- 
cord not  only  complied,  but,  in  1653,  subscribed  a  sum 
for  several  years  to  the  support  of  Harvard  College.3 

But  a  new  and  alarming  public  distress  retarded  the 
growth  of  this,  as  of  the  sister  towns  during  more  than 
twenty  years  from  1654  to  1676.  In  1654,  the  four 

1  Gospel  Covenant,  p.  301. 

a  Bancroft,  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  498. 

*  Shattuck,  p.  45. 


SECOND   CENTENNIAL   OF   CONCORD.  51 

united  New  England  Colonies  agreed  to  raise  270  foot 
and  40  horse,  to  reduce  Ninigret,  Sachem  of  the  Nian- 
tics,  and  appointed  Major  Simon  Willard,  of  this  town, 
to  the  command.1  This  war  seems  to  have  been  pressed 
by  three  of  the  colonies,  and  reluctantly  entered  by 
Massachusetts.  Accordingly,  Major  Willard  did  the 
least  he  could,  and  incurred  the  censure  of  the  Commis- 
sioners, who  write  to  their  "  loving  friend  Major  AVil- 
lard,"  "  that  they  leave  to  his  consideration  the  incon- 
veniences arising  from  his  non-attendance  to  his  com- 
mission." 2  This  expedition  was  but  the  introduction  of 
the  war  with  King  Philip.  In  1670,  the  Wampanoags 
began  to  grind  their  hatchets  and  mend  their  guns, 
and  insult  the  English.  Philip  surrendered  seventy 
guns  to  the  Commissioners  in  Taunton  Meeting-house,3 
but  revenged  his  humiliation  a  few  years  after,  by  car- 
rying fire  and  the  tomahawk  into  the  English  villages. 
From  Narraganset  to  the  Connecticut  River,  the  scene 
of  war  was  shifted  as  fast  as  these  red  hunters  could 
traverse  the  forest.  Concord  was  a  military  post.  The 
inactivity  of  Major  Willard,  in  Ninigret's  war,  had  lost 
him  no  confidence.  He  marched  from  Concord  to 
Brookfield,  in  season  to  save  the  people  whose  houses 
had  been  burned,  and  who  had  taken  shelter  in  a  forti- 
fied house.4  But  he  fought  with  disadvantage  against 
an  enemy  who  must  be  hunted  before  every  battle. 
Some  flourishing  towns  were  burned.  John  Monoco,  a 
formidable  savage,  boasted  that  "  he  had  burned  Med- 
fielcl  and  Lancaster,  and  would  burn  Groton,  Concord, 

1  Hutchinson,  vol.  i.  p.  172. 

2  See  his  instructions  from  the  Commissioners,  his  narrative,  and  the 
Commissioners'  letter  to  him,  in  HutchiiiBon's  Collection,  pp.  261-270. 

»  Hutchinson,  History,  vol.  i.  p.  254. 

*  Hubbard,  Indian  Wars,  p.  119,  ed.  1801. 


52  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

Watertown  and  Boston  ; "  adding,  "  what  me  will,  me 
do."  He  did  burn  Groton,  but  before  he  had  executed 
the  remainder  of  his  threat  he  was  hanged,  in  Boston, 
in  September,  1676. x 

A  still  more  formidable  enemy  was  removed,  in  the 
same  year,  by  the  capture  of  Canonchet,  the  faithful 
ally  of  Philip,  who  was  soon  afterwards  shot  at  Ston- 
iiigton.  He  stoutly  declared  to  the  Commissioners  that 
"  he  would  not  deliver  up  a  Wampanoag,  nor  the  par- 
ing of  a  Wampanoag's  nail  ; "  and  when  he  was  told 
that  his  sentence  was  death,  he  said  "he  liked  it  well 
that  he  was  to  die  before  his  heart  was  soft,  or  he  had 
spoken  anything  unworthy  of  himself."  2 

We  know  beforehand  who  must  conquer  in  that  un- 
equal struggle.  The  red  man  may  destroy  here  and 
there  a  straggler,  as  a  wild  beast  may  ;  he  may  fire  a 
farm-house,  or  a  village  ;  but  the  association  of  the 
white  men  and  their  arts  of  war  give  them  an  over- 
whelming advantage,  and  in  the'  first  blast  of  their 
trumpet  we  already  hear  the  flourish  of  victory.  I 
confess  what  chiefly  interests  me,  in  the  annals  of  that 
war,  is  the  grandeur  of  spirit  exhibited  by  a  few  of 
the  Indian  chiefs.  A  nameless  Wampanoag  who  was 
put  to  death  by  the  Mohicans,  after  cruel  tortures,  was 
asked  by  his  butchers  during  the  torture,  how  he  liked 
the  war  ?  —  he  said,  "  he  found  it  as  sweet  as  sugar 
was  to  Englishmen."  8 

The  only  compensation  which  war  offers  for  its  man- 
ifold mischiefs,  is  in  the  great  personal  qualities  to 
which  it  gives  scope  and  occasion.  The  virtues  of  patri- 
otism and  of  prodigious  courage  and  address  were  ex. 
hibited  on  botli  sides,  and,  in  many  instances,  by  women. 

i  Hubbard,  p.  201.          2  Hubbard,  p.  180.  s  Hubbard,  p.  245. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    53 

The  historian  of  Concord  has  preserved  an  instance  of 
the  resolution  of  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  town. 
Two  young  farmers,  Abraham  and  Isaac  Shepherd, 
had  set  their  sister  Mary,  a  girl  of  fifteen  years,  to 
watch  whilst  they  threshed  grain  in  the  barn.  The 
Indians  stole  upon  her  before  she  was  aware,  and  her 
brothers  were  slain.  She  was  carried  captive  into  the 
Indian  country,  but,  at  night,  whilst  her  captors  were 
asleep,  she  plucked  a  saddle  from  under  the  head  of 
one  of  them,  took  a  horse  they  had  stolen  from  Lan- 
caster, and  having  -girt  the  saddle  on,  she  mounted, 
swam  across  the  Nashua  river,  and  rode  through  the 
forest  to  her  home.1 

With  the  tragical  end  of  Philip,  the  war  ended.  Be- 
leaguered in  his  own  country,  his  corn  cut  down,  his 
piles  of  meal  and  other  provision  wasted  by  the  Eng- 
lish, it  was  only  a  great  thaw  in  January,  that,  melt- 
ing the  snow  and  opening  the  earth,  enabled  his  poor 
followers  to  come  at  the  ground-nuts,  else  they  had 
starved.  Hunted  by  Captain  Church,  he  fled  from 
one  swamp  to  another  ;  his  brother,  his  uncle,  his  sister 
and  his  beloved  squaw  being  taken  or  slain,  he  was  at 
last  shot  down  by  an  Indian  deserter,  as  he  fled  alone 
in  the  dark  of  the  morning,  not  far  from  his  own  fort.3 

Concord  suffered  little  from  the  war.  This  is  to  be 
attributed  no  doubt,  in  part,  to  the  fact  that  troops 
were  generally  quartered  here,  and  that  it  was  the  res- 
idence of  many  noted  soldiers.  Tradition  finds  an- 
other cause  in  the  sanctity  of  its  minister.  The  elder 
Bulkeley  was  gone.  In  1659,3  his  bones  were  laid  at 
rest  in  the  forest.  But  the  mantle  of  his  piety,  and  of 

i  Shattuck,  p.  55.  *  Hubbard,  p.  260. 

»  Neal,  History  of  New  England,  vol.  i.  p.  321. 


54  HISTOniCAL   DISCOURSE. 

the  people's  affection  fell  upon  his  son  Edward,1  the 
fame  of  whose  prayers,  it  is  said,  once  saved  Concord 
from  an  attack  of  the  Indian.2  A  great  defence  un- 
doubtedly was  the  village  of  Praying  Indians,  until  this 
settlement  fell  a  victim  to  the  envenomed  prejudice 
against  their  countrymen.  The  worst  feature  in  the 
history  of  those  years,  is,  that  no  man  spake  for  the 
Indian.  When  the  Dutch,  or  the  French,  or  the  Eng- 
lish royalist  disagreed  with  the  Colony,  there  was  al- 
ways found  a  Dutch,  or  French,  or  tory  party,  —  an 
earnest  minority,  —  to  keep  things  from  extremity. 
But  the  Indian  seemed  to  inspire  such  a  feeling  as  the 
wild  beast  inspires  in  the  people  near  his  den.  It  is 
the  misfortune  of  Concord  to  have  permitted  a  dis- 
graceful outrage  upon  the  friendly  Indians  settled 
within  its  limits,  in  February,  1G76,  which  ended  in 
their  forcible  expulsion  from  the  town. 

This  painful  incident  is  but  too  just  an  example  of 
the  measure  which  the  Indians  have  generally  received 
from  the  whites.  For  them  the  heart  of  charity,  of  hu- 
manity, was  stone.  After  Philip's  death,  their  strength 
was  irrecoverably  broken.  They  never  more  disturbed 
the  interior  settlements,  and  a  few  vagrant  families, 
that  are  now  pensioners  on  the  bounty  of  Massachusetts, 
are  all  that  is  left  of  the  twenty  tribes. 

'•  Alas  !   for  them  —  their  day  is  o'er, 
Their  fires  are  out  from  hill  and  shore  ; 
No  more  for  them  the  wild.  Jeer  bounds, 
The  plough  is  on  their  hunting  grounds  ; 
The,  pale  man's  axe  rings  in  their  woods, 
The  pale  man's  sail  skims  o'er  their  floods, 
Their  pleasant  springs  are  dry."  3 


,  vol.  i.  p.  363.  2  Shattuck,  p.  59. 

8  Sprague's  Centennial  Ode. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    55 

I  turn  gladly  to  the  progress  of  our  civil  history. 
Before  1666,  15,000  acres  had  been  added  by  grants 
of  the  General  Court  to  the  original  territory  of  the 
town,1  so  that  Concord  then  included  the  greater  part 
of  the  towns  of  Bedford,  Acton,  Lincoln  and  Carlisle. 

In  the  great  growth  of  the  country,  Concord  partici- 
pated, as  is  manifest  from  its  increasing  polls  and  in- 
creased rates.  Randolph  at  this  period  writes  to  the 
English  Government,  concerning  the  country  towns  : 
"  The  farmers  are  numerous  and  wealthy,  live  in  good 
houses  ;  are  given  to  hospitality ;  and  make  good  advan- 
tage by  their  corn,  cattle,  poultry,  butter  and  cheese."  2 
Edward  Bulkeley  was  the  pastor,  until  his  death,  in 
1696.  His  youngest  brother,  Peter,  was  deputy  from 
Concord,  and  was  chosen  speaker  of  the  house  of  dep- 
uties in  1676.  The  following  year,  he  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land, with  Mr.  Stoughton,  as  agent  for  the  Colony  ;  and, 
on  his  return,  in  1685,  was  a  royal  councillor.  But  I 
am  sorry  to  find  that  the  servile  Randolph  speaks  of 
him  with  marked  respect.8  It  would  seem  that  his  visit 
to  England  had  made  him  a  courtier.  In  1689,  Con- 
cord partook  of  the  general  indignation  of  the  province 
against  Andros.  A  company  marched  to  the  capital 
under  Lieut.  Heald,  forming  a  part  of  that  body  con- 
cerning which  we  are  informed,  "  the  country  people 
came  armed  into  Boston,  on  the  afternoon  (of  Thurs- 
day, 13th  April),  in  such  rage  and  heat,  as  made  us  all 
tremble  to  think  what  would  follow ;  for  nothing  would 
satisfy  them  but  that  the  governor  must  be  bound  in 
chains  or  cords,  and  put  in  a  more  secure  place,  and 

1  Shattuck. 

2  Hutehinson's  Collection,  p.  484. 

»  Hutchinson's  Collection,  pp.  543,  548,  557,  566. 


56  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

that  they  would  see  done  before  they  went  away  ;  and 
to  satisfy  them  he  was  guarded  by  them  to  the  fort."  a 
But  the  town  records  of  that  day  confine  themselves 
to  descriptions  of  lands,  and  to  conferences  with  the 
neighboring  towns  to  run  boundary  lines.  In  1699,  so 
broad  was  their  territory,  I  find  the  selectmen  running 
the  lines  with  Chelmsford,  Cambridge  and  Watertown.'2 
Some  interesting  peculiarities  in  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms of  the  time,  appear  in  the  town's  books.  Pro- 
posals of  marriage  were  made  by  the  parents  of  the 
parties,  and  minutes  of  such  private  agreements  some- 
times entered  on  the  clerk's  records.8  The  public 
charity  seems  to  have  been  bestowed  in  a  manner  now 
obsolete.  The  town  lends  its  commons  as  pastures,  to 
poor  men  ;  and  "  being  informed  of  the  great  present 
want  of  Thomas  Pellit,  gave  order  to  Stephen  Hosmer 
to  deliver  a  town  cow,  of  a  black  color,  with  a  white 
face,  unto  said  Pellit,  for  his  present  supply."  4 

From  the  beginning  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  our  records  indicate  no  interruption  of  the 
tranquillity  of  the  inhabitants,  either  in  church  or  in 
civil  affairs.  After  the  death  of  Rev.  Mr.  Estabrook,  in 
1711,  it  was  propounded  at  the  town  meeting,  "  whether 
one  of  the  three  gentlemen  lately  improved  here  in 
preaching,  namely,  Mr.  John  Whiting,  Mr.  Holyoke 
and  Mr.  Prescott  shall  be  now  chosen  in  the  work  of 
the  ministry  ?  Voted  affirmatively."  5  Mr.  Whiting, 
who  was  chosen,  was,  we  are  told  in  his  epitaph,  "  a 
universal  lover  of  mankind."  The  charges  of  education 

Hutchinson's  History,  vol.  i.  p.  33C. 

Town  Records. 

See  Appendix,  Note  A,  March  and  April. 

Records,  July,  1698. 

Records,  Nov.  1711 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    57 

and  of  legislation,  at  this  period,  seem  to  have  afflicted 
the  town  ;  for,  they  vote  to  petition  the  General  Court, 
to  be  eased  of  the  law  relating  to  providing  a  school- 
master ;  happily,  the  court  refused  ;  and  in  1712,  the 
Selectmen  agreed  with  Capt.  James  Minott,  "for  his 
son  Timothy  to  keep  the  school  at  the  school-house  for 
the  town  of  Concord,  for  half  a  year  beginning  2d 
June  ;  and  if  any  scholar  shall  come,  within  the  said 
time,  for  laming  exceeding  his  son's  ability,  the  said 
Captain  doth  agree  to  instruct  them  himself  in  the 
tongues,  till  the  above  said  time  be  fulfilled  ;  for  which 
service,  the  town  is  to  pay  Capt.  Miuott  ten  pounds."  l 
Capt.  Minott  seems  to  have  served  our  prudent  fathers 
in  the  double  capacity  of  teacher  and  representative. 
It  is  an  article  in  the  Selectmen's  warrant  for  the  town 
meeting,  "  to  see  if  the  town  will  lay  in  for  a  represen- 
tative not  exceeding  four  pounds."  Captain  Minott  was 
chosen,  and  after  the  General  Court  was  adjourned  re- 
ceived of  the  town  for  his  services,  an  allowance  of 
three  shillings  per  day.  The  country  was  not  yet  so 
thickly  settled  but  that  the  inhabitants  suffered  from 
wolves  and  wild-cats,  which  infested  the  woods  ;  since 
bounties  of  twenty  shillings  are  given  as  late  as  1735, 
to  Indians  and  whites,  for  the  heads  of  these  animals, 
after  the  constable  has  cut  off  the  ears.2 

Mr.  Whiting  was  succeeded  in  the  pastoral  office  by 
Rev.  Daniel  Bliss,  in  1738.  Soon  after  his  ordination, 
the  town  seems  to  have  been  divided  by  ecclesiastical 
discords.  In  1741,  the  celebrated  Whitfield  preached 
here,  in  the  open  air,  to  a  great  congregation.  Mr. 
Bliss  heard  that  great  orator  with  delight,  and  by  his 
earnest  sympathy  with  him,  in  opinion  and  practice, 
i  Records,  May,  1712.  *  Records,  1735 


58  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

gave  offence  to  a  part  of  his  people.  Party  and  mutual 
councils  were  called,  but  no  grave  charge  was  made 
good  against  him.  I  find,  in  the  Church  Records,  the 
charges  preferred  against  him,  his  answer  thereto,  and 
the  result  of  the  Council.  The  charges  seem  to  have 
been  made  by  the  lovers  of  order  and  moderation 
against  Mr.  Bliss,  as  a  favorer  of  religious  excitements. 
His  answer  to  one  of  the  counts  breathes  such  true 
piety  that  I  cannot  forbear  to  quote  it.  The  ninth  al- 
legation is  "  That  in  praying  for  himself,  in  a  church 
meeting,  in  December  last,  he  said,  '  he  was  a  poor  vile 
worm  of  the  dust,  that  was  allowed  as  Mediator  be- 
tween God  and  this  people.' "  To  this  Mr.  Bliss  re- 
plied, "  In  the  prayer  you  speak  of,  Jesus  Christ  was 
acknowledged  as  the  only  Mediator  between  God  and 
man  ;  at  which  time,  I  was  filled  with  wonder,  that 
such  a  sinful  and  worthless  worm  as  I  am,  was  allowed 
to  represent  Christ,  in  any  manner,  even  so  far  as  to  be 
bringing  the  petitions  and  thank-offerings  of  the  people 
unto  God,  and  God's  will  and  truths  to  the  people  ; 
and  used  the  word  Mediator  in  some  differing  light  from 
that  you  have  given  it  ;  but  I  confess  I  was  soon  uneasy 
that  I  had  used  the  word,  lest  some  would  put  a  wrong 
meaning  thereupon."  1  The  Council  admonished  Mr. 
Bliss  of  some  improprieties  of  expression,  but  bore  wit- 
ness to  his  purity  and  fidelity  in  his  office.  In  1704, 
Whitfield  preached  again  at  Concord,  on  Sunday  after- 
noon ;  Mr.  Bliss  preached  in  the  morning,  and  the  Con- 
cord people  thought  their  minister  gave  them  the  better 
sermon  of  the  two.  It  was  also  his  last. 

The  planting  of  the  Colony  was  the  effect  of  relig- 
ious principle.     The  Revolution  was  the  fruit  of  an. 
i  Church  Records,  July,  1742. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    59 

other  principle,  —  the  devouring  thirst  for  justice. 
From  the  appearance  of  the  article  in  the  Selectmen's 
warrant,  in  1765,  "to  see  if  the  town  will  give  the 
Representative  any  instructions  about  any  important 
affair  to  be  transacted  by  the  General  Court,  concern- 
ing the  Stamp  Act  ; " 1  to  the  peace  of  17#3,  the  Town 
Records  breathe  a  resolute  and  warlike  spirit,  so  bold 
from  the  first  as  hardly  to  admit  of  increase. 

It  would  be  impossible  on  this  occasion  to  recite  all 
these  patriotic  papers.  I  must  content  myself  with  a 
few  brief  extracts.  On  the  24th  January,  1774,  in  an- 
swer to  letters  received  from  the  united  committees 
of  correspondence,  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  the  town 
say: 

"  We  cannot  possibly  view  with  indifference  the  past 
and  present  obstinate  endeavors  of  the  enemies  of  this, 
as  well  as  the  mother  country,  to  rob  us  of  those  rights, 
that  are  the  distinguishing  glory  and  felicity  of  this 
land  ;  rights,  that  we  are  obliged  to  no  power,  under 
heaven,  for  the  enjoyment  of ;  as  they  are  the  fruit  of 
the  heroic  enterprises  of  the  first  settlers  of  these 
American  colonies.  And  though  we  cannot  but  be 
alarmed  at  the  great  majority,  in  the  British  parlia- 
ment, for  the  imposition  of  unconstitutional  taxes  on 
the  colonies,  yet,  it  gives  life  and  strength  to  every  at- 
tempt to  oppose  them,  that  not  only  the  people  of  this, 
but  the  neighboring  provinces  are  remarkably  united 
in  the  important  and  interesting  opposition,  which,  as 
it  succeeded  before,  in  some  measure,  by  the  blessing 
of  heaven,  so,  we  cannot  but  hope,  it  will  be  attended 
with  still  greater  success  in  future. 

"  Resolved,  That  these  colonies  have  been  and  still  are 


60  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

illegally  taxed  by  the  British  parliament,  as  they  are 
not  virtually  represented  therein. 

"  That  the  purchasing  commodities  subject  to  such 
legal  taxation  is  an  explicit,  though  an  impious  and 
sordid  resignation  of  the  liberties  of  this  free  and  happy 
people. 

"  That,  as  the  British  parliament  have  empowered  the 
East  India  Company  to  export  their  tea  into  America, 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue  from  hence  ; 
to  render  the  design  abortive,  we  will  not,  in  this  town, 
either  by  ourselves,  or  any  from  or  under  us,  buy,  sell, 
or  use  any  of  the  East  India  Company's  tea,  or  any 
other  tea,  whilst  there  is  a  duty  for  raising  a  revenue 
thereon  in  America  ;  neither  will  we  suffer  any  such 
tea  to  be  used  in  our  families. 

"  That,  all  such  persons  as  shall  purchase,  sell,  or  use 
any  such  tea,  shall,  for  the  future,  be  deemed  unfriendly 
to  the  happy  constitution  of  this  country. 

"  That,  in  conjunction  with  our  brethren  in  America, 
we  will  risk  our  fortunes,  and  even  our  lives,  in  de- 
fence of  his  majesty,  King  George  the  Third,  his  per- 
son, crown  and  dignity  :  and  will,  also,  with  the  same 
resolution,  as  his  free-born  subjects  in  this  country,  to 
the  utmost  of  our  power,  defend  all  our  rights  inviolate 
to  the  latest  posterity. 

"  That,  if  any  person  or  persons,  inhabitants  of  this 
province,  so  long  as  there  is  a  duty  on  tea,  shall  import 
any  tea  from  the  India  House,  in  England,  or  be  fac- 
tors for  the  East  India  Company,  we  will  treat  them,  in 
an  eminent  degree,  as  enemies  to  their  country,  and 
with  contempt  and  detestation. 

"  That,  we  think  it  our  duty,  at  this  critical  time  of 
our  public  affairs,  to  return  our  hearty  thanks  to  the 


SECOND   CENTENNIAL   OF   CONCORD.          61 

town  of  Boston  for  every  rational  measure  they  have 
taken  for  the  preservation  or  recovery  of  our  invalua- 
ble rights  and  liberties  infringed  upon  ;  and  we  hope, 
should  the  state  of  our  public  affairs  require  it,  that 
they  will  still  remain  watchful  and  persevering  ;  with 
a  steady  zeal  to  espy  out  everything  that  shall  have  a 
tendency  to  subvert  our  happy  constitution."  1 

On  the  27th  June,  near  three  hundred  persons,  up- 
wards of  twenty-one  years  of  age,  inhabitants  of  Con- 
cord, entered  into  a  covenant,  "  solemnly  engaging  with 
each  other,  in  the  presence  of  God,  to  suspend  all  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  Great  Britain,  until  the  act 
for  blocking  the  harbor  of  Boston  be  repealed  ;  and 
neither  to  buy  nor  consume  any  merchandise  imported 
from  Great  Britain,  nor  to  deal  with  those  who  do."  2 

In  August  a  County  Convention  met  in  this  town,  to 
deliberate  upon  the  alarming  state  of  public  affairs,  and 
published  an  admirable  report.3  In  September,  in- 
censed at  the  new  royal  law  which  made  the  judges 
dependent  on  the  crown,  the  inhabitants  assembled  on 
the  common,  and  forbade  the  justices  to  open  the  court 
of  sessions.  This  little  town  then  assumed  the  sov- 
ereignty. It  was  judge  and  jury  and  council  and  king. 
On  the  26th  of  the  month,  the  whole  town  resolved 
itself  into  a  committee  of  safety,  "  to  suppress  all  riots, 
tumults,  and  disorders  in  said  town,  and  to  aid  all  un- 
tainted magistrates  in  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the 
land."  4  It  was  then  voted,  to  raise  one  or  more  com- 
panies of  minute  men,  by  enlistment,  to  be  paid  by  the 
town  whenever  called  out  of  town  ;  and  to  provide  arms 
and  ammunition,  "that  those  who  are  unable  to  pur- 

»  Town  Records.  '  Town  Records. 

3  See  the  Report  in  Shattuck,  p.  82.  «  Records.  . 


62  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

chase  them  themselves,  may  have  the  advantage  of  them 
if  necessity  calls  for  it."  l  In  October,  the  Provincial 
Congress  met  in  Concord.  John  Hancock  was  Presi- 
dent. This  body  was  composed  of  the  foremost  patri- 
ots, and  adopted  those  efficient  measures  whose  progress 
and  issue  belong  to  the  history  of  the  nation.2 

The  clergy  of  New  England  were,  for  the  most  part, 
zealous  promoters  of  the  Revolution.  A  deep  religious 
sentiment  sanctified  the  thirst  for  liberty.  All  the  mili-  - 
tary  movements  in  this  town,  were  solemnized  by  acts 
of  public  worship.  In  January,  1775;  a  meeting  was 
held  for  the  enlisting  of  Minute  Men.  Rev.  William 
Emerson,  the  Chaplain  of  the  Provincial  Congress, 
preached  to  the  people.  Sixty  men  enlisted  and,  in  a 
few  days,  many  more.  On  13th  March,  at  a  general 
review  of  all  the  military  companies,  he  preached  to  a 
very  full  assembly,  taking  for  his  text,  2  Chronicles 
xiii.  12,  "  And,  behold,  God  himself  is  with  us  for  our 
captain,  and  his  priests  with  sounding  trumpets  to  cry 
alarm  against  you."  8  It  is  said  that  all  the  services  of 
that  day  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  people,  even  to 
the  singing  of  the  psalm. 

A  large  amount  of  military  stores  had  been  deposited 
in  this  town,  by  order  of  the  Provincial  Committee  of 
Safety.  It  was  to  destroy  those  stores,  that  the  troops 
who  were  attacked  in  this  town,  on  the  19th  April,  1775, 
were  sent  hither  by  General  Gage. 

The  story  of  that  day  is  well  known.  In  these  peace- 
ful fields,  for  the  first  time  since  a  hundred  years,  the 
drum  and  alarm -gun  were  heard,  and  the  fanners 

1  Kecords. 

1  Bradford,  History  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i.  p.  353. 

s  Rev.  W.  Emerson's  MS.  Journal. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.     63 

snatched  down  their  rusty  firelocks  from  the  kitchen 
walls,  to  make  good  the  resolute  words  of  their  town 
debates.  In  the  field  where  the  western  abutment  of 
the  old  bridge  may  still  be  seen,  about  half  a  mile  from 
this  spot,  the  first  organized  resistance  was  made  to 
the  British  arms.  There  the  Americans  first  shed  Brit- 
ish blood.  Eight  hundred  British  soldiers,  under  the 
command  of  Lieut.-Col.  Francis  Smith,  had  marched 
from  Boston  to  Concord  ;  at  Lexington  had  fired  upon 
the  brave  handful  of  militia,  for  which  a  speedy  revenge 
was  reaped  by  the  same  militia  in  the  afternoon.  When 
they  entered  Concord,  they  found  the  militia  and  minute 
men  assembled  under  the  command  of  Col.  Barrett  and 
Major  Buttrick.  This  little  battalion,  though  in  their 
hasty  council  some  were  urgent  to  stand  their  ground, 
retreated  before  the  enemy  to  the  high  land  on  the  other 
bank  of  the  river,  to  wait  for  reinforcement.  Col. 
Barrett  ordered  the  troops  not  to  fire,  unless  fired  upon. 
The  British  following  them  across  the  bridge,  posted 
two  companies,  amounting  to  about  one  hundred  men, 
to  guard  the  bridge,  and  secure  the  return  of  the  plun- 
dering party.  Meantime,  the  men  of  Acton,  Bedford, 
Lincoln  and  Carlisle,  all  once  included  in  Concord,  re- 
membering their  parent  town  in  the  hour  of  danger, 
arrived  and  fell  into  the  ranks  so  fast,  that  Major  But- 
trick  found  himself  superior  in  number  to  the  enemy's 
party  at  the  bridge.  And  when  the  smoke  began  to 
rise  from  the  village  where  the  British  were  burning 
cannon-carriages  and  military  stores,  the  Americans 
resolved  to  force  their  way  into  town.  The  English 
beginning  to  pluck  up  some  of  the  planks  of  the  bridge, 
the  Americans  quickened  their  pace,  and  the  British 
fired  one  or  two  shots  up  the  river,  (our  ancient  friend 


64  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

here,  Master  Blood,  saw  the  water  struck  by  the  first 
ball  ;)  then  a  single  gun,  the  ball  from  which  wounded 
Luther  Blanchard  and  Jonas  Brown,  and  then  a  volley, 
by  which  Captain  Isaac  Davis  and  Abner  Hosmer  of 
Acton  were  instantly  killed.  Major  Buttrick  leaped 
from  the  ground,  and  gave  the  command  to  fire,  which 
was  repeated  in  a  simultaneous  cry  by  all  his  men. 
The  Americans  fired,  and  killed  two  men  and  wounded 
eight.  A  head  stone  and  a  foot  stone,  on  this  bank  of 
the  river,  mark  the  place  where  these  first  victims  lie. 
The  British  retreated  immediately  towards  the  village, 
and  were  joined  by  two  companies  of  grenadiers,  whom 
the  noise  of  the  firing  had  hastened  to  the  spot.  The 
militia  and  minute  men,  —  every  one  from  that  moment 
being  his  own  commander,  —  ran  over  the  hills  opposite 
the  battle-field,  and  across  the  great  fields,  into  the  east 
quarter  of  the  town,  to  waylay  the  enemy,  and  annoy 
his  retreat.  The  British,  as  soon  as  they  were  rejoined 
by  the  plundering  detachment,  began  that  disastrous 
retreat  to  Boston,  which  was  an  omen  to  both  parties  of 
the  event  of  the  war. 

In  all  the  anecdotes  of  that  day's  events  we  may  dis- 
cern the  natural  action  of  the  people.  It  was  not  an 
extravagant  ebullition  of  feeling,  but  might  have  been 
calculated  on  by  any  one  acquainted  with  the  spirits 
and  habits  of  our  community.  Those  poor  farmers 
who  came  up,  that  day,  to  defend  their  native  soil, 
acted  from  the  simplest  instincts.  They  did  not  know 
it  was  a  deed  of  fame  they  were  doing.  These  men  did 
not  babble  of  glory.  They  never  dreamed  their  chil- 
dren would  contend  who  had  done  the  most.  They  sup- 
posed they  had  a  right  to  their  corn  and  their  cattle, 
without  paying  tribute  to  any  but  their  own  governors. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    65 

And  as  they  had  no  fear  of  man,  they  yet  did  have  a 
fear  of  God.  Capt.  Charles  Miles,  who  was  wounded 
in  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy,  told  my  venerable  friend 
who  sits  by  me,  that  "  he  went  to  the  services  of  that 
day,  with  the  same  seriousness  and  acknowledgment  of 
God,  which  he  carried  to  church." 

The  presence  of  these  aged  men  who  were  in  arms  on 
that  day,  seems  to  bring  us  nearer  to  it.  The  benig- 
nant Providence  which  has  prolonged  their  lives  to  this 
hour,  gratifies  the  strong  curiosity  of  the  new  genera- 
tion. The  Pilgrims  are  gone  ;  but  we  see  what  manner 
of  persons  they  were  who  stood  in  the  worst  perils  of 
the  Revolution.  We  hold  by  the  hand  the  last  of  the 
invincible  men  of  old,  and  confirm  from  living  lips  the 
sealed  records  of  time. 

And  you,  my  fathers,  whom  God  and  the  history  of 
your  country  have  ennobled,  may  well  bear  a  chief  part 
in  keeping  this  peaceful  birth-day  of  our  town.  You 
are  indeed  extraordinary  heroes.  If  ever  men  in  arms 
had  a  spotless  cause,  you  had.  You  have  fought  a 
good  fight.  And  having  quit  you  like  men  in  the  bat- 
tle, you  have  quit  yourselves  like  men  in  your  virtuous 
families  ;  in  your  cornfields  ;  and  in  society.  We  will 
not  hide  your  honorable  gray  hairs  under  perishing  lau- 
rel leaves,  but  the  eye  of  affection  and  veneration  fol- 
lows you.  You  are  set  apart,  —  and  forever,  —  for  the 
esteem  and  gratitude  of  the  human  race.  To  you  be- 
longs a  better  badge  than  stars  and  ribbons.  This  pros- 
pering country  is  your  ornament,  and  this  expanding 
nation  is  multiplying  your  praise  with  millions  of 
tongues. 

The  agitating  events  of  those  days  were  duly  remem- 
bered in  the  church.  On  the  second  day  after  the  affray, 


66  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

divine  service  was  attended,  in  this  house,  by  700  sol- 
diers. William  Emerson,  the  pastor,  had  a  hereditary 
claim  to  the  affection  of  the  people,  being  descended  in 
the  fourth  generation  from  Edward  Bulkeley,  son  of 
Peter.  But  he  had  merits  of  his  own.  The  cause  of 
the  colonies  was  so  much  in  his  heart,  that  he  did  not 
cease  to  make  it  the  subject  of  his  preaching  and  his 
prayers,  and  is  said  to  have  deeply  inspired  many  of  his 
people  with  his  own  enthusiasm.  He,  at  least,  saw 
clearly  the  pregnant  consequences  of  the  19th  April.  I 
have  found  within  a  few  days,  among  some  family  pa- 
pers, his  almanac  of  1775,  in  a  blank  leaf  of  which  he 
has  written  a  narrative  of  the  fight  ;  x  and,  at  the  close 
of  the  month,  he  writes,  "  This  month  remarkable  for 
the  greatest  events  of  the  present  age."  To  promote  the 
same  cause,  he  asked,  and  obtained  of  the  town,  leave 
to  accept  the  commission  of  chaplain  to  the  Northern 
army,  at  Ticonderoga,  and  died,  after  a  few  months,  of 
the  distemper  that  prevailed  in  the  camp. 

In  the  whole  course  of  the  war  the  town  did  not  de- 
part from  this  pledge  it  had  given.  Its  little  popula- 
tion of  1300  souls  behaved  like  a  party  to  the  contest. 
The  number  of  its  troops  constantly  in  service  is  very 
great.  Its  pecuniary  burdens  are  out  of  all  proportion 
to  its  capital.  The  economy  so  rigid  which  marked  its 
earlier  history,  has  all  vanished.  It  spends  profusely, 
affectionately,  in  the  service.  "  Since,"  say  the  plain- 
tive records,  "  General  Washington,  at  Cambridge,  is 
not  able  to  give  but  24s.  per  cord  for  wood,  for  the 
army,  it  is  Voted,  that  this  town  encourage  the  inhab- 
itants to  supply  the  army,  by  paying  two  dollars  per 
cord,  over  and  above  the  General's  price,  to  such  as 
1  See  the  Appendix,  Note  B. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.    67 

shall  carry  wood  thither  ; " a  and  210  cords  were  car- 
ried.2 A  similar  order  is  taken  respecting  hay.  Whilst 
Boston  was  occupied  by  the  British  troops,  Concord  con- 
tributed to  the  relief  of  the  inhabitants,  £70,  in  money; 
225  bushels  of  grain  ;  and  a  quantity  of  meat  and  wood. 
When,  presently,  the  poor  of  Boston  were  quartered 
by  the  Provincial  Congress  on  the  neighboring  country, 
Concord  received  82  persons  to  its  hospitality.3  In  the 
•year  1775,  it  raised  100  minute  men,  and  74  soldiers  to 
serve  at  Cambridge.  In  March,  1776,  145  men  were 
raised  by  this  town  to  serve  at  Dorchester  Heights.4  In 
June,  the  General  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  resolved 
to  raise  5,000  militia  for  six  months,  to  reinforce  the 
Continental  army.  "  The  numbers,"  say  they,  "  are 
large,  but  this  Court  has  the  fullest  assurance,  that 
their  brethren,  on  this  occasion,  will  not  confer  with 
flesh  and  blood,  but  will,  without  hesitation,  and  with 
the  utmost  alacrity  and  despatch,  fill  up  the  numbers 
proportioned  to  the  several  towns."  5  On  that  occasion, 
Concord  furnished  67  men,  paying  them  itself,  at  an  ex- 
pense of  £622.  And  so  on,  with  every  levy,  to  the  end 
of  the  war.  For  these  men  it  was  continually  providing 
shoes,  stockings,  shirts,  coats,  blankets  and  beef.  The 
taxes,  which,  before  the  war,  had  not  much  exceeded 
£200  per  annum,  amounted,  in  the  year  1782,  to  $9,544, 
in  silver.6 

The  great  expense  of  the  war  was  borne  with  cheer- 
fulness, whilst  the  war  lasted  ;  but  years  passed,  after 

Records,  Dec.  1775. 

Shattuck,  p.  125. 

Shattuck,  p.  125. 

Shattuck,  p.  124. 

Bradford,  History  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  ii.  p.  113. 

Shattuck,  p.  126. 


68  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

the  peace,  before  the  debt  was  paid.  As  soon  as  danger 
and  injury  ceased,  the  people  were  left  at  leisure  to 
consider  their  poverty  and  their  debts.  The  town  rec- 
ords show  how  slowly  the  inhabitants  recovered  from 
the  strain  of  excessive  exertion.  Their  instructions  to 
their  representatives  are  full  of  loud  complaints  of  the 
disgraceful  state  of  public  credit,  and  the  excess  of 
public  expenditure.  They  may  be  pardoned,  under 
such  distress,  for  the  mistakes  of  an  extreme  frugality. 
They  fell  into  a  common  error,  not  yet  dismissed  to 
the  mooii,  that  the  remedy  was,  to  forbid  the  great  im- 
portation of  foreign  commodities,  and  to  prescribe  by 
law  the  prices  of  articles.  The  operation  of  a  new  gov- 
ernment was  dreaded,  lest  it  should  prove  expensive, 
and  the  country  towns  thought  it  would  be  cheaper  if 
it  were  removed  from  the  capital.  They  were  jealous 
lest  the  General  Court  should  pay  itself  too  liberally, 
and  our  fathers  must  be  forgiven  by  their  charitable 
posterity,  if,  in  1782,  before  choosing  a  representative, 
it  was  "  Voted,  that  the  person  who  should  be  chosen 
representative  to  the  General  Court  should  receive  6s. 
per  day,  whilst  in  actual  service,  an  account  of  which 
time  he  should  bring  to  the  town,  and  if  it  should  be 
that  the  General  Court  should  resolve,  that  their  pay 
should  be  more  than  6s.,  then  the  representative  shall 
be  hereby  directed  to  pay  the  overplus  into  the  town 
treasury."  1  This  was  securing  the  prudence  of  the 
public  servants. 

But  whilst  the  town  had  its  own  full  share  of  the  public 
distress,  it  was  very  far  from  desiring  relief  at  the  cost 
of  order  and  law.     In  1786,  when  the  general  suffer- 
ings drove  the  people  in  parts  of  Worcester  and  Hamp- 
*  Records,  May  3. 


SECOND   CENTENNIAL   OF   CONCORD.          69 

shire  counties  to  insurrection,  a  large  party  of  armed 
insurgents  arrived  in  this  town,  on  the  12th  September, 
to  hinder  the  sitting  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas. 
But  they  found  no  countenance  here.1  The  same  peo- 
ple who  had  been  active  in  a  County  Convention  to  con- 
sider grievances,  condemned  the  rebellion,  and  joined 
the  authorities  in  putting  it  down.  In  1787,  the  admi- 
rable instructions  given  by  the  town  to  its  representa- 
tive are  a  proud  monument  of  the  good  sense  and  good 
feeling  that  prevailed.  The  grievances  ceased  with  the 
adoption  of  the  federal  constitution.  The  constitution 
of  Massachusetts  had  been  already  accepted.  It  was 
put  to  the  town  of  Concord,  in  October,  1776,  by  the 
Legislature,  whether  the  existing  house  of  representa- 
tives should  enact  a  constitution  for  the  State  ?  The 
town  answered  No.2  The  General  Court,  notwithstand- 
ing, draughted  a  constitution,  sent  it  here,  and  asked 
the  town  whether  they  would  have  it  for  the  law  of 
the  State  ?  The  town  answered  No,  by  a  unanimous 
vote.  In  1780,  a  constitution  of  the  State,  proposed 
by  the  Convention  chosen  for  that  purpose,  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  town  with  the  reservation  of  some  arti- 
cles.3 And,  in  1788,  the  town,  by  its  delegate,  accepted 
the  new  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  this 
event  closed  the  whole  series  of  impo:  tant  public  events 
in  which  this  town  played  a  part. 

From  that  time  to  the  present  hour,  this  town  has 
made  a  slow  but  constant  progress  in  population  and 
wealth,  and  the  arts  of  peace.  It  has  suffered  neither 

>  Bradford,  History  of  Massachusetts,  vol  i.  p.  2CC,  and  Records. 
9th  September. 
*  Records,  21st  October, 
a  Records,  7th  May. 


70  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

from  war,  nor  pestilence,  nor  famine,  nor  flagrant  crime. 
Its  population,  in  the  census  of  1830,  was  2,020  souls. 
The  public  expenses,  for  the  last  year,  amounted  to 
$4,290  ;  for  the  present  year,  to  $5,040.!  If  the  com- 
munity stints  its  expense  in  small  matters,  it  spends 
freely  on  great  duties.  The  town  raises,  this  year, 
$1,800  for  its  public  schools  ;  besides  about  $1,200 
which  are  paid,  by  subscription,  for  private  schools. 
This  year,  it  expends  $800  for  its  poor  ;  the  last  year 
it  expended  $900.  Two  religious  societies,  of  differing 
creed,  dwell  together  in  good  understanding,  both  pro- 
moting, we  hope,  the  cause  of  righteousness  and  love. 
Concord  has  always  been  noted  for  its  ministers.  The 
living  need  no  praise  of  mine.  Yet  it  is  among  the 
sources  of  satisfaction  and  gratitude,  this  day,  that  the 
aged  with  whom  is  wisdom,  our  fathers'  counsellor  and 
friend,  is  spared  to  counsel  and  intercede  for  the  sons. 
Such,  Fellow  Citizens,  is  an  imperfect  sketch  of  the 
history  of  Concord.  I  have  been  greatly  indebted,  in 
preparing  this  sketch,  to  the  printed  but  unpublished 
History  of  this  town,  furnished  me  by  the  unhesitating 
kindness  of  its  author,  long  a  resident  in  this  place.  I 
hope  that  History  will  not  long  remain  unknown.  The 
author  has  done  us  and  posterity  a  kindness,  by  the 
zeal  and  patience  of  his  research,  and  has  wisely  en- 
riched his  pages  with  the  resolutions,  addresses  and  in- 
structions to  its  agents,  which  from  time  to  time,  at 
critical  periods,  the  town  has  voted.  Meantime,  I  have 
read  with  care  the  town  records  themselves.  They 
must  ever  be  the  fountains  of  all  just  information  re- 
specting your  character  and  customs.  They  are  the 
history  of  the  town.  They  exhibit  a  pleasing  picture  oi 
i  Records,  1831  aud  1835. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.     71 

a  community  almost  exclusively  agricultural,  where 
no  man  has  much  time  for  words,  in  his  search  after 
things  ;  of  a  community  of  great  simplicity  of  manners, 
and  of  a  manifest  love  of  justice.  For  the  most  part, 
the  town  has  deserved  the  name  it  wears.  I  find  our 
annals  marked  with  a  uniform  good  sense.  I  find 
no  ridiculous  laws,  no  eaves-dropping  legislators,  no 
hanging  of  witches,  no  ghosts,  no  whipping  of  Quak- 
ers, no  unnatural  crimes.  The  tone  of  the  records 
rises  with  the  dignity  of  the  event.  These  soiled  and 
musty  books  are  luminous  and  electric  within.  The 
old  town  clerks  did  not  spell  very  correctly,  but  they 
contrive  to  make  pretty  intelligible  the  will  of  a  free 
and  just  community.  Frugal  our  fathers  were, — very 
frugal,  —  though,  for  the  most  part,  they  deal  gener- 
ously by  their  minister,  and  provide  well  for  the  schools 
and  the  poor.  If,  at  any  time,  in  common  with  most 
of  our  towns,  they  have  carried  this  economy  to  the 
verge  of  a  vice,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  a  town  is, 
in  many  respects,  a  financial  corporation.  They  econ- 
omize, that  they  may  sacrifice.  They  stint  and  hig- 
gle on  the  price  of  a  pew,  that  they  may  send  200  sol- 
diers to  General  Washington  to  keep  Great  Britain  at 
bay.  For  splendor,  there  must  somewhere  be  rigid 
economy.  That  the  head  of  the  house  may  go  brave, 
the  members  must  be  plainly  clad,  and  the  town  must 
save  that  the  State  may  spend.  Of  late  years,  the 
growth  of  Concord  has  been  slow.  Without  navigable 
waters,  without  mineral  riches,  without  any  consider- 
able mill  privileges,  the  natural  increase  of  her  popula- 
tion is  drained  by  the  constant  emigration  of  the  youth. 
Her  sons  have  settled  the  region  around  us,  and  far 
from  us.  Their  wagons  have  rattled  dowu  the  remote 


72  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

western  hills.  And  in  every  part  of  this  country,  and 
in  many  foreign  parts,  they  plough  the  earth,  they  trav- 
erse the  sea,  they  engage  in  trade  and  in  all  the  profes- 
sions. 

Fellow  Citizens  ;  let  not  the  solemn  shadows  of  two 
hundred  years,  this  day,  fall  over  us  in  vain.  I  feel 
some  unwillingness  to  quit  the  remembrance  of  the 
past.  With  all  the  hope  of  the  new  I  feel  that  we  are 
leaving  the  old.  Every  moment  carries  us  farther  from 
the  two  great  epochs  of  public  principle,  the  Planting, 
and  the  Revolution  of  the  colony.  Fortunate  and  fa- 
vored this  town  has  been,  in  having  received  so  large  an 
infusion  of  the  spirit  of  both  of  those  periods.  Humble 
as  is  our  village  in  the  circle  of  later  and  prouder  towns 
that  whiten  the  land,  it  has  been  consecrated  by  the 
presence  and  activity  of  the  purest  men.  Why  need  I 
remind  you  of  our  own  Hosmers,  Minotts,  Cumings, 
Barretts,  Beattons,  the  departed  benefactors  of  the 
town  ?  On  the  village  green  have  been  the  steps  of 
Winthrop  and  Dudley  ;  of  John  Eliot,  the  Indian  apos- 
tle, who  had  a  courage  that  intimidated  those  savages 
whom  liis  love  could  not  melt  ;  of  Whitfield,  whose  sil- 
ver voice  melted  his  great  congregation  into  tears  ;  of 
Hancock,  and  his  compatriots  of  the  provincial  Con- 
gress ;  of  Langdon,  and  the  college  over  which  he  pre- 
sided. But  even  more  sacred  influences  than  these 
have  mingled  here  with  the  stream  of  human  life.  The 
merit  of  those  who  fill  a  space  in  the  world's  history, 
who  are  borne  forward,  as  it  were,  by  the  weight  of 
thousands  whom  they  lead,  sheds  a  perfume  less  sweet 
than  do  the  sacrifices  of  private  virtue.  I  have  had 
much  opportunity  of  access  to  anecdotes  of  families,  and 
I  believe  this  town  to  have  been  the  dwelling  place,  in 


SECOND   CENTENNIAL   OF   CONCORD.  73 

all  times  since  its  planting,  of  pious  and  excellent  per- 
sons, who  walked  meekly  through  the  paths  of  common 
life,  who  served  God,  and  loved  man,  and  never  let 
go  the  hope  of  immortality.  The  benediction  of  their 
prayers  and  of  their  principles  lingers  around  us.  The 
acknowledgment  of  the  Supreme  Being  exalts  the  his- 
tory of  this  people.  It  brought  the  fathers  hither.  In  a 
war  of  principle,  it  delivered  their  sons.  And  so  long 
as  a  spark  of  this  faith  survives  among  the  children's 
children,  so  long  shall  the  name  of  Concord  be  honest 
and  venerable. 


APPENDIX. 

NOTE  A.  —    SEE  P.  56. 

The  following  minutes  from  the  Town  Records  in 
1692,  may  serve  as  an  example  :  — 

John  Craggin,  aged  about  63  years,  and  Sarah  his  wife, 
act.  about  63  years,  do  both  testify  upon  oath,  that,  about 
2  years  ago,  John  Shepard,  sen.  of  Concord,  came  to  our 
house  in  Obourne,  to  treat  with  us,  and  give  us  a  visit, 
and  carried  the  said  Sary  Craggin  to  Concord  with  him, 
and  there  discoursed  us  in  order  to  a  marriage  between 
his  son,  John  Shepard,  Jr.  and  our  daughter,  Eliz.  Crag- 
gin,  and,  for  our  incouragement,  and  before  us,  did  prom- 
ise, that,  upon  the  consummation  of  the  said  marriage, 
he,  the  said  John  Shepard,  sen.  would  give  to  his  son, 
John  Shepard,  jun.  the  one  half  of  his  dwelling  house, 
and  the  old  barn,  and  the  pasture  before  the  barn  ;  the 
old  plow-laud,  and  the  old  horse,  when  his  colt  was  tit 


74  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

to  ride,  and  his  old  oxen,  when  his  steers  were  fit  to 
work.  All  this  he  promised  upon  marriage  as  above 
said,  which  marriage  was  consummated  upon  March  fol- 
lowing, which  is  two  years  ago,  come  next  March,  Dated 
Feb.  25,  1692.  Taken  on  oath  before  me,  Wm.  John- 
son. 

NOTE    B.  —  SEE   P.   66. 

The  importance  which  the  skirmish  at  Concord 
Bridge  derived  from  subsequent  events,  has,  of  late 
years,  attracted  much  notice  to  the  incidents  of  the  day. 
There  are,  as  might  be  expected,  some  discrepancies  in 
the  different  narratives  of  the  fight.  In  the  brief  sum- 
mary in  the  text,  I  have  relied  mainly  on  the  deposi- 
tions taken  by  order  of  the  Provincial  Congress  within 
a  few  days  after  the  action,  and  on  the  other  contem- 
porary evidence.  I  have  consulted  the  English  narra- 
tive in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  and  in 
the  trial  of  Home  (Cases  adjudged  in  King's  Bench  ; 
London,  1800,  vol.  ii.  p.  677),  the  inscription  made  by 
order  of  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts  on  the  two 
field-pieces  presented  to  the  Concord  Artillery  ;  Mr. 
Phinney's  History  of  the  Battle  at  Lexington  ;  Dr. 
Ripley's  History  of  Concord  Fight  ;  Mr.  Shattuck's 
narrative  in  his  History,  besides  some  oral  and  some 
manuscript  evidence  of  eye-witnesses.  The  following 
narrative,  written  by  Rev.  William  Fmerson,  a  specta- 
tor of  the  action,  has  never  been  published.  A  part  of 
it  has  been  in  my  possession  for  years  :  a  part  of  it  I 
discovered,  only  a  few  days  since,  in  a  truidc  of  family 
papers  :  — 

"  1775,  19  April.  This  morning,  between  1  and  2 
o'clock,  we  were  alarmed  by  the  ringing  of  the  bell, 
and  upon  examination  found  that  the  troops,  to  the 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.     75 

number  of  800,  had  stole  their  march  from  Boston,  in 
boats  and  barges,  from  the  bottom  of  the  Common  over 
to  a  point  in  Cambridge,  near  to  Inman's  Farm,  and 
were  at  Lexington  Meeting-house,  half  an  hour  before 
sunrise,  where  they  had  fired  upon  a  body  of  our  men, 
and  (as  we  afterward  heard),  had  killed  several.  This 
intelligence  was  brought  us  at  first  by  Dr.  Samuel  Pres- 
cott,  who  narrowly  escaped  the  guard  that  were  sent 
before  on  horses,  purposely  to  prevent  all  posts  and  mes- 
sengers from  giving  us  timely  information.  He,  by  the 
help  of  a  very  fleet  horse,  crossing  several  walls  and 
fences,  arrived  at  Concord  at  the  time  above  mentioned  ; 
when  several  posts  were  immediately  despatched,  that 
returning  confirmed  the  account  of  the  regulars'  arrival 
at  Lexington,  and  that  they  were  on  their  way  to  Con- 
cord. Upon  this,  a  number  of  our  minute  men  belong- 
ing to  this  town,  and  Acton,  and  Lyncoln,  with  several 
others  that  were  in  readiness,  marched  out  to  meet 
them  ;  while  the  alarm  company  were  preparing  to  re- 
ceive them  in  the  town.  Capt.  Miuot,  who  commanded 
them,  thought  it  proper  to  take  possession  of  the  hill 
above  the  rneeting-house,  as  the  most  advantageous  situ- 
ation. No  sooner  had  our  men  gained  it,  than  we  were 
met  by  the  companies  that  were  sent  out  to  meet  the 
troops,  who  informed  us,  that  they  were  just  upon  us, 
and  that  we  must  retreat,  as  their  number  was  more 
than  treble  ours.  We  then  retreated  from  the  hill  near 
the  Liberty  Pole,  and  took  a  new  post  back  of  the  town 
upon  an  eminence,  where  we  formed  into  two  battalions, 
and  waited  the  arrival  of  the  enemy.  Scarcely  had  we 
formed  before  we  saw  the  British  troops  at  the  distance 
of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  glittering  in  arms,  advancing  to- 
wards us  with  the  greatest  celerity.  Some  were  for 


76  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

making  a  stand,  notwithstanding  the  superiority  of  their 
number  ;  but  others  more  prudent  thought  best  to  re- 
treat till  our  strength  should  be  equal  to  the  enemy's 
by  recruits  from  neighboring  towns  that  were  continu- 
ally coining  in  to  our  assistance.  Accordingly  we  re- 
treated over  the  bridge,  when  the  troops  came  into  the 
town,  set  fire  to  several  carriages  for  the  artillery,  de- 
stroyed 60  bbls.  flour,  rifled  several  houses,  took  pos- 
session of  the  town-house,  destroyed  500  Ib.  of  balls, 
set  a  guard  of  100  men  at  the  North  Bridge,  and  sent 
up  a  party  to  the  house  of  Col.  Barrett,  where  they 
were  in  expectation  of  finding  a  quantity  of  warlike 
stores.  But  these  were  happily  secured  just  before 
their  arrival,  by  transportation  into  the  woods  and  other 
by-places.  In  the  meantime,  the  guard  set  by  the  en- 
emy to  secure  the  pass  at  the  North  Bridge  were 
alarmed  by  the  approach  of  our  people,  who  had  re- 
treated, as  mentioned  before,  and  were  now  advancing 
with  special  orders  not  to  fire  upon  the  troops  unless 
fired  upon.  These  orders  were  so  punctually  observed 
that  we  received  the  fire  of  the  enemy  in  three  several 
and  separate  discharges  of  their  pieces  before  it  was 
returned  by  our  commanding  officer  ;  the  firing  then 
soon  became  general  for  several  minutes,  in  which  skir- 
mish two  were  killed  on  each  side,  and  several  of  the 
enemy  wounded.  It  may  here  be  observed,  by  the 
way,  that  we  were  the  more  cautious  to  prevent  begin- 
ning a  rupture  with  the  King's  troops,  as  we  were  then 
uncertain  what  had  happened  at  Lexington,  and  knew 
[not]  i  that  they  had  begun  the  quarrel  there  by  first 

1  The  context  and  tlie  testimony  of   some  of  the  surviving  veterans 
incline  me  to  think  that  this  word  was  accidentally  omitted. 

R.  W.  E. 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.     77 

firing  upon  our  people,  and  killing  eight  men  upon  the 
spot.  The  three  companies  of  troops  soon  quitted  their 
post  at  the  bridge,  and  retreated  in  the  greatest  dis- 
order and  confusion  to  the  main  body,  who  were  soon 
upon  the  march  to  meet  them.  For  half  an  hour,  the 
enemy,  by  their  marches  and  counter-marches,  discov- 
ered great  fickleness  and  inconstancy  of  mind,  some- 
times advancing,  sometimes  returning  to  their  former 
posts  ;  till  at  length  they  quitted  the  town,  and  re- 
treated by  the  way  they  came.  In  the  meantime  a 
party  of  our  men  (150)  took  the  back  way  through  the 
Great  Fields  into  the  east  quarter,  and  had  placed 
themselves  to  advantage,  lying  in  ambush  behind  walls, 
fences  and  buildings,  ready  to  fire  upon  the  enemy  on 
their  retreat." 


The  following  notice  of  the  Centennial  Celebration 
has  been  drawn  up  and  sent  us  by  a  friend  who  thought 
it  desirable  to  preserve  the  remembrance  of  some  par- 
ticulars of  this  historical  festival. 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  town  of  Concord,  in  April  last, 
it  was  voted  to  celebrate  the  Second  Centennial  Anni- 
versary of  the  settlement  of  the  town,  on  the  12th  Sep- 
tember following.  A  committee  of  fifteen  were  chosen 
to  make  the  arrangements.  This  committee  appointed 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Orator,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Ripley 
and  Rev.  Mr.  Wilder,  Chaplains  of  the  Day.  Hon. 
John  Keyes  was  chosen  President  of  the  Day. 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  12th  September,  at  half  past 
10  o'clock,  the  children  of  the  town,  to  the  number  of 
about  500,  moved  in  procession  to  the  Common  in  front 


78  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

of  the  old  church  and  Court-house,  and  there  opened  to 
the  right  and  left,  awaiting  the  procession  of  citizens. 
At  11  o'clock,  the  Concord  Light  Infantry,  under  Capt. 
Moore,  and  the  Artillery  under  Capt.  Buttrick,  escorted 
the  civic  procession,  under  the  direction  of  Moses  Prich- 
ard  as  Chief  Marshal,  from  Shepherd's  hotel,  through 
the  lines  of  children  to  the  Meeting-house.  The  South 
gallery  had  been  reserved  for  ladies,  and  the  North 
gallery  for  the  children  ;  but  (it  was  a  good  omen)  the 
children  overran  the  space  assigned  for  their  accom- 
modation, and  were  sprinkled  throughout  the  house, 
and  ranged  on  seats  along  the  aisles.  The  old  Meet- 
ing-house, which  was  propped  to  sustain  the  unwonted 
weight  of  the  multitude  within  its  walls,  was  built  in 
1712,  thus  having  stood  for  more  than  half  the  period 
to  which  our  history  goes  back.  Prayers  were  offered 
and  the  Scriptures  read  by  the  aged  minister  of  the 
town,  Rev.  Ezra  Ripley,  now  in  the  85th  year  of  his 
age  ;  —  another  interesting  feature  in  this  scene  of  rem- 
iniscences. A  very  pleasant  and  impressive  part  of  the 
services  in  the  church  was  the  singing  of  the  107th 
psalm,  from  the  New  England  version  of  the  psalms 
made  by  Eliot,  Mather,  and  others,  in  1G39,  and  used 
in  the  church  in  this  town  in  the  days  of  Peter  Bulke- 
ley.  The  psalm  was  read  a  line  at  a  time,  after  the 
ancient  fashion,  from  the  Deacons'  seat,  and  so  sung  to 
the  tune  of  St.  Martin's  by  the  whole  congregation 
standing. 

"  Ten  of  the  surviving  veterans  who  were  in  arms  at 
the  Bridge,  on  the  19th  April,  1775,  honored  the  fes- 
tival with  their  presence.  Their  names  are  Abel  Davis, 
Thaddeus  Blood,  Tilly  Buttrick,  John  Hosmer,  of  Con- 
cord; Thomas  Thorp,  Solomon  Smith,  John  Oliver, 


SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  CONCORD.     79 

Aaron  Jones,  of  Acton  •  David  Lane,  of  Bedford  •  Amos 
Baker,  of  Lincoln. 

"  On  leaving  the  church,  the  procession  again  formed, 
and  moved  to  a  large  tent  nearly  opposite  Shepherd's 
hotel,  under  which  dinner  was  prepared,  and  the  com- 
pany sat  down  to  the  tables,  to  the  number  of  four 
hundred.  We  were  honored  with  the  presence  of  dis- 
tinguished guests,  among  whom  were  Lieut.  Gov.  Arm- 
strong, Judge  Davis,  Alden  Bradford  (descended  from 
the  2d  governor  of  Plymouth  Colony),  Hon.  Edward 
Everett,  Hon.  Stephen  C.  Phillips  of  Salem,  Philip 
Hone,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  Gen.  Dearborn,  and  Lt.  Col. 
R.  C.  Winthrop  (descended  from  the  1st  Governor  of 
Massachusetts).  Letters  were  read  from  several  gen- 
tlemen expressing  their  regret  at  being  deprived  of  the 
pleasure  of  being  present  on  the  occasion.  The  char- 
acter of  the  speeches  and  sentiments  at  the  dinner  was 
manly  and  affectionate,  in  keeping  with  the  whole  tem- 
per of  the  day. 

"  On  leaving  the  dinner  table,  the  invited  guests,  with 
many  of  the  citizens,  repaired  to  the  Court-house  to 
pay  their  respects  to  the  ladies  of  Concord,  who  had 
there,  with  their  friends,  partaken  of  an  elegant  col- 
lation, and  now  politely  offered  coffee  to  the  gentlemen. 
The  hall,  in  which  the  collation  was  spread,  had  been 
decorated  by  fair  hands  with  festoons  of  flowers,  and 
wreaths  of  evergreen,  and  hung  with  pictures  of  the 
Fathers  of  the  Town.  Crowded  as  it  was  with  graceful 
forms  and  happy  faces,  and  resounding  with  the  hum  of 
animated  conversation,  it  was  itself  a  beautiful  living 
picture.  Compared  with  the  poverty  and  savageness 
of  the  scene  which  the  same  spot  presented  two  hun- 
dred years  ago,  it  was  a  brilliant  reverse  of  the  medal ; 


80  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

and  could  scarcely  fail,  like  all  the  parts  of  the  holiday, 
to  lead  the  reflecting  mind  to  thoughts  of  that  Divine 
Providence,  which,  in  every  generation,  has  been  our 
tower  of  defence  and  horn  of  blessing. 

"  At  sunset  the  company  separated  and  retired  to 
their  homes  ;  and  the  evening  of  this  day  of  excitement 
was  as  quiet  as  a  Sabbath  throughout  the  village." 


ADDRESS 


AT  THE  DEDICATION  OF  THE  SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT  IN 
CONCORD,  APRIL  19TH,  1867. 


ADDRESS. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS  : 

The  day  is  in  Concord  doubly  our  calendar  day,  as 
being  the  anniversary  of  the  invasion  of  the  town  by 
the  British  troops  in  1775,  and  of  the  departure  of  the 
company  of  volunteers  for  Washington,  in  1861.  We 
are  all  pretty  well  aware  that  the  facts  which  make  to 
us  the  interest  of  this  day  are  in  a  great  degree  per- 
sonal and  local  here  ;  that  every  other  town  and  city 
has  its  own  heroes  and  memorial  days,  and  that  we  can 
hardly  expect  a  wide  sympathy  for  the  names  and  anec- 
dotes which  we  delight  to  record.  We  are  glad  and 
proud  that  we  have  no  monopoly  of  merit.  We  are 
thankful  that  other  towns  and  cities  are  as  rich ;  that 
the  heroes  of  old  and  of  recent  date,  who  made  and 
kept  America  free  and  united,  were  not  rare  or  soli- 
tary growths,  but  sporadic  over  vast  tracts  of  the  Re- 
public. Yet,  as  it  is  a  piece  of  nature  and  the  common 
sense  that  the  throbbing  chord  that  holds  us  to  our 
kindred,  our  friends  and  our  town,  is  not  to  be  denied 
or  resisted,  —  no  matter  how  frivolous  or  unphilo- 
sophical  its  pulses,  —  we  shall  cling  affectionately  to  our 
houses,  our  river  and  pastures,  and  believe  that  our 
visitors  will  pardon  us  if  we  take  the  privilege  of  talk- 
ing freely  about  our  nearest  neighbors  as  in  a  family 


84  ADDRESS. 

party  ;  —  well  assured,  meantime,  that  the  virtues  we 
are  met  to  honor  were  directed  on  aims  which  command 
the  sympathy  of  every  loyal  American  citizen,  were  ex- 
erted for  the  protection  of  our  common  country,  and 
aided  its  triumph. 

The  town  has  thought  fit  to  signify  its  honor  for  a 
few  of  its  sons  by  raising  an  obelisk  in  the  square.  It 
is  a  simple  pile  enough,  —  a  few  slabs  of  granite,  dug 
just  below  the  surface  of  the  soil,  and  laid  upon  the  top 
of  it  ;  but  as  we  have  learned  that  the  upheaved  mount- 
ain, from  which  these  discs  or  flakes  were  broken,  was 
once  a  glowing  mass  at  white  heat,  slowly  crystallized, 
then  uplifted  by  the  central  fires  of  the  globe  :  so  the 
roots  of  the  events  it  appropriately  marks  are  in  the 
heart  of  the  universe.  I  shall  say  of  this  obelisk, 
planted  here  in  our  quiet  plains,  what  Richter  says  of 
the  volcano  in  the  fair  landscape  of  Naples  :  "  Vesuvius 
stands  in  this  poem  of  Nature,  and  exalts  everything, 
as  war  does  the  age." 

The  art  of  the  architect  and  the  sense  of  the  town 
have  made  these  dumb  stones  speak  ;  have,  if  I  may 
borrow  the  old  language  of  the  church,  converted  these 
elements  from  a  secular  to  a  sacred  and  spiritual  use  ; 
have  made  them  look  to  the  past  and  the  future  ;  have 
given  them  a  meaning  for  the  imagination  and  the  heart. 
The  sense  of  the  town,  the  eloquent  inscriptions  the 
shaft  now  bears,  the  memories  of  these  martyrs,  the 
noble  names  which  yet  have  gathered  only  their  iirst 
fame,  whatever  good  grows  to  the  country  out  of  the 
war,  the  largest  results,  the  future  power  and  genius  of 
the  land,  will  go  on  clothing  this  shaft  with  daily  beauty 
and  spiritual  life.  'T  is  certain  that  a  plain  stone  like 
this,  standing  on  such  memories,  having  no  reference  to 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT.  85 

utilities,  but  only  to  the  grand  instincts  of  the  civil  and 
moral  man,  mixes  with  surrounding  nature,  —  by  day, 
with  the  changing  seasons,  by  night  the  stars  roll  over 
it  gladly,  —  becomes  a  sentiment,  a  poet,  a  prophet,  an 
orator,  to  every  townsman  and  passenger,  an  altar 
where  the  noble  youth  shall  in  all  time  come  to  make 
his  secret  vows. 

The  old  Monument,  a  short  half-mile  from  this  house, 
stands  to  signalize  the  first  Revolution,  where  the  peo- 
ple resisted  offensive  usurpations,  offensive  taxes  of 
the  British  Parliament,  claiming  that  there  should  be 
no  tax  without  representation.  Instructed  by  events, 
after  the  quarrel  began,  the  Americans  took  higher 
ground,  and  stood  for  political  independence.  But  in 
the  necessities  of  the  hour  they  overlooked  the  moral 
law,  and  winked  at  a  practical  exception  to  the  Bill  of 
Rights  they  had  drawn  up.  They  winked  at  the  ex- 
ception, believing  it  insignificant.  But  the  moral  law, 
the  nature  of  things,  did  not  wink  at  it,  but  kept  its 
eye  wide  open.  It  turned  out  that  this  one  violation 
was  a  subtle  poison,  which  in  eighty  years  corrupted  the 
whole  overgrown  body  politic,  and  brought  the  alter- 
native of  extirpation  of  the  poison  or  ruin  to  the  Re- 
public. 

Tliis  new  Monument  is  built  to  mark  the  arrival  of 
the  nation  at  the  new  principle,  —  say,  rather,  at  its 
now  acknowledgment,  for  the  principle  is  as  old  as 
Heaven,  —  that  only  that  State  can  live,  in  which  in- 
jury to  the  least  member  is  recognized  as  damage  to 
the  whole. 

Reform  must  begin  at  home.  The  aim  of  the  hour 
was  to  reconstruct  the  South  ;  but  first  the  North  had 
to  be  reconstructed.  Its  own  theory  and  practice  of 


86  ADDRESS. 

liberty  had  got  sadly  out  of  gear,  and  must  be  cor- 
rected. It  was  clone  on  the  instant.  A  thunder-storm 
at  sea  sometimes  reverses  the  magnets  in  the  ship,  and 
south  is  north.  The  storm  of  war  works  the  like  mira- 
cle on  men.  Every  democrat  who  went  South  came 
back  a  republican,  like  the  governors  who,  in  Buchan- 
an's time,  went  to  Kansas,  and  instantly  took  the  free- 
state  colors.  War,  says  the  poet,  is 

"the  arduous  strife, 
To  which  the  triumph  of  all  good  is  given." 

Every  principle  is  a  war-note.  When  the  rights  of 
man  are  recited  under  any  old  government,  every  one 
of  them  is  a  declaration  of  war.  War  civilizes,  re- 
arranges the  population,  distributing  by  ideas,  —  the 
innovators  on  one  side,  the  antiquaries  on  the  other. 
It  opens  the  eyes  wider.  Once  we  were  patriots  up  to 
the  town-bounds,  or  the  Sta'  0-line.  But  when  you  re- 
place the  love  of  family  or  clan  by  a  principle,  as  free- 
dom, instantly  that  lire  runs  over  the  ^tate-line  into 
New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  New  York  and  Ohio,  into 
the  prairie  and  beyond,  leaps  the  mountains,  bridges 
river  and  lake,  burns  as  hotlv  in  Kansas  and  California 
as  in  Boston,  and  no  chemist  can  discriminate  between 
one  soil  and  the  other.  It  lifts  every  population  to  an 
equal  power  and  merit. 

As  long  as  we  debate  in  council,  both  sides  may  form 
their  private  guess  what  the  event  may  be,  or  which  is 
the  strongest.  But  the  moment  you  cry  "  Every  man 
to  his  tent,  O  Israel  !  "  the  delusions  of  hope  and  fear 
are  at  an  end;— the  strength  is  now  to  be  tested  bv 
the  eternal  facts.  There  will  be  no  doubt  more.  The 
world  is  equal  to  itself.  The  secret  architecture  of 
things  begins  to  disclose  itself  ;  the  fact  that  all  things 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT.  87 

were  made  on  a  basis  of  right  ;  that  justice  is  really 
desired  by  all  intelligent  beings  ;  that  opposition  to  it 
is  against  the  nature  of  things  ;  and  that,  whatever  may 
happen  in  this  hour  or  that,  the  years  and  the  centuries 
are  always  palling  down  the  wrong  and  building  up  the 
right. 

The  war  made  the  Divine  Providence  credible  to 
many  who  did  not  believe  the  good  Heaven  quite  hon- 
est. Every  man  was  an  abolitionist  by  conviction,  but 
did  not  believe  that  his  neighbor  was.  The  opinions 
of  masses  of  men,  which  the  tactics  of  primary  cau- 
cuses and  the  proverbial  timidity  of  trade  had  con- 
cealed, the  war  discovered  ;  and  it  was  found,  contrary 
to  all  popular  belief,  that  the  country  was  at  heart  abo- 
litionist, and  for  the  Union  was  ready  to  die. 

As  cities  of  men  are  the  first  effects  of  civilization, 
and  also  instantly  causes  of  more  civilization,  so  armies, 
which  are  only  wandering  cities,  generate  a  vast  heat, 
and  lift  the  spirit  of  the  soldiers  who  compose  them  to 
the  boiling  point.  The  armies  mustered  in  the  North 
were  as  much  missionaries  to  the  mind  of  the  country 
as  they  were  carriers  of  material  force,  and  had  the 
vast  advantage  of  carrying  whither  they  marched  a 
higher  civilization.  Of  course,  there  are  noble  men 
everywhere,  and  there  are  such  in  the  South  ;  and  the 
noble  know  the  noble,  wherever  they  meet ;  and  we 
have  all  heard  passages  of  generous  and  exceptional 
behavior  exhibited  by  individuals  there  to  our  officers 
and  men,  during  the  war.  But  the  common  people, 
rich  or  poor,  were  the  narrowest  and  most  conceited  of 
mankind,  as  arrogant  as  the  negroes  on  the  Gambia 
River  ;  and,  by  the  way,  it  looks  as  if  the  editors  of  the 
Southern  press  were  at  all  times  selected  from  this 


88  ADDRESS. 

class.  The  invasion  of  Northern  farmers,  mechanics, 
engineers,  tradesmen,  lawyers  and  students  did  more 
than  forty  years  of  peace  had  done  to  educate  the 
South.  '-This  will  be  a  slow  business,"  writes  our 
Concord  captain  home,  "  for  we  have  to  stop  and  civil- 
ize the  people  as  we  go  along." 

It  is  an  interesting  part  of  the  history,  the  manner 
in  which  this  incongruous  militia  were  made  soldiers. 
That  was  done  again  on  the  Kansas  plan.  Our  farm- 
ers went  to  Kansas  as  peaceable,  God-fearing  men  as 
the  members  of  our  school-committee  here.  But  when 
the  Border  raids  were  let  loose  on  their  villages,  these 
people,  who  turned  pale  at  home  if  called  to  dress  a  cut 
finger,  on  witnessing  the  butchery  done  by  the  Missouri 
riders  on  women  and  babes,  were  so  beside  themselves 
with  rage,  that  they  became  on  the  instant  the  bravest 
soldiers  and  the  most  determined  avengers.  And  the 
first  events  of  the  war  of  the  llebellion  gave  the  like 
training  to  the  new  recruits. 

All  sorts  of  men  went  to  the  war,  —  the  roughs,  men 
who  liked  harsh  play  and  violence,  men  for  whom  pleas- 
ure was  not  strong  enough,  but  who  wanted  pain,  and 
found  sphere  at  last  for  their  superabundant  energy  ; 
then  the  adventurous  type  of  New  Englander,  with  his 
appetite  for  novelty  and  travel  ;  the  village  politician, 
who  could  now  verify  his  newspaper  knowledge,  see  the 
South,  and  amass  what  a  stock  of  adventures  to  retail 
hereafter  at  the  fireside,  or  to  the  well-known  compan- 
ions on  the  Mill-dam  ;  young  men,  also,  of  excellent 
education  and  polished  manners,  delicately  brought  up; 
manly  farmers,  skilful  mechanics,  young  tradesmen, 
men  hitherto  of  narrow  opportunities  of  knowing  the 
world,  but  well  taught  in  the  grammar-schools.  But 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT.  89 

perhaps  in  every  one  of  these  classes  were  idealists, 
men  who  went  from  a  religious  duty.  I  have  a  note  of 
a  conversation  that  occurred  in  our  first  company,  the 
morning  before  the  battle  of  Bull  Run.  At  a  halt  in 
the  march,  a  few  of  our  boys  were  sitting  on  a  rail  fence 
talking  together  whether  it  was  right  to  sacrifice  them- 
selves. One  of  them  said,  "  he  had  been  thinking  a 
good  deal  about  it,  last  night,  and  he  thought  one  was 
never  too  young  to  die  for  a  principle."  One  of  our 
later  volunteers,  on  the  day  when  he  left  home,  in  re- 
ply to  my  question,  How  can  you  be  spared  from  your 
farm,  now  that  your  father  is  so  ill  ?  said  :  "  I  go  be- 
cause I  shall  always  be  sorry  if  I  did  not  go  when  the 
country  called  me.  I  can  go  as  well  as  another."  One 
wrote  to  his  father  these  words  :  —  "You  may  think  it 
strange  that  I,  who  have  always  naturally  rather  shrunk 
from  danger,  should  wish  to  enter  the  army  ;  but  there 
is  a  higher  Power  that  tunes  the  hearts  of  men,  and 
enables  them  to  see  their  duty,  and  gives  them  courage 
to  face  the  dangers  with  which  those  duties  are  at- 
tended." And  the  captain  writes  home  of  another  of 

his  men,  — "  B comes  from  a  sense  of  duty  and 

love  of  country,  and  these  are  the  soldiers  you  can  de- 
pend upon." 

None  of  us  can  have  forgotten  how  sharp  a  test 
to  try  our  peaceful  people  with,  was  the  first  call  for 
troops.  I  doubt  not  many  of  our  soldiers  could  repeat 
the  confession  of  a  youth  whom  I  knew  in  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  who  enlisted  in  New  York,  went  to  the  field, 
and  died  early.  Before  his  departure  he  confided  to 
his  sister  that  he  was  naturally  a  coward,  but  was  de- 
termined that  no  one  should  ever  find  it  out;  that  he 
had  long  trained  himself  by  forcing  himself,  on  the  sus- 


90  ADDRESS. 

picion  of  any  near  danger,  to  go  directly  up  to  it,  cost 
him  what  struggles  it  might.  Yet  it  is  from  this  tem- 
perament of  sensibility  that  great  heroes  have  been 
formed. 

Our  first  company  was  led  by  an  officer  who  had 
grown  up  in  this  village  from  a  boy.  The  older  among 
us  can  well  remember  him  at  school,  at  play  and  at 
work,  all  the  way  up,  the  most  amiable,  sensible,  unpre- 
tending of  men;  fair,  blonde,  the  rose  lived  long  in  Ins 
cheek;  grave,  but  social,  and  one  of  the  last  men  in  this 
town  you  would  have  picked  out  for  the  rough  dealing 
of  war,  —  not  a  trace  of  fierceness,  much  less  of  reck- 
lessness, or  of  the  devouring  thirst  for  excitement;  ten- 
der as  a  woman  in  his  care  for  a  cough  or  a  chilblain  in 
his  men;  had  troches  and  arnica  in  his  pocket  for  them. 
The  army  officers  were  welcome  to  their  jest  on  him  as 
too  kind  for  a  captain,  and,  later,  as  the  colonel  who  got 
off  his  horse  when  he  saw  one  of  his  men  limp  on  the 
inarch,  and  told  him  to  ride.  But  lie  knew  that  his  men 
had  found  out,  first,  that  he  was  captain,  then  that  he 
was  colonel,  and  neither  dared  nor  wished  to  disobey 
him.  He  was  a  man  without  conceit,  who  never  fancied 
himself  a  philosopher  or  a  saint;  the  most  modest  and 
amiable  of  men,  engaged  in  common  duties,  but  equal 
always  to  the  occasion;  and  the  war  showed  him  still 
equal,  however  stern  and  terrible  the  occasion  grew,  — 
disclosed  in  him  a  strong  good  sense,  great  fertility  of 
resource,  the  helping  hand,  and  then  the  moral  qualities 
of  a  commander,  —  a  patience  not  to  be  tired  out,  a 
serious  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  country  that  never 
swerved,  a  hope  that  never  failed.  He  was  a  Puritan 
in  the  army,  with  traits  that  remind  one  of  John  Brown, 
—  an  integrity  incorruptible,  and  an  ability  that  always 
rose  to  the  need. 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT.  91 

You  will  remember  that  these  colonels,  captains  and 
lieutenants,  and  the  privates  too,  are  domestic  men,  just 
wrenched  away  from  their  families  and  their  business 
by  this  rally  of  all  the  manhood  in  the  land.  They 
have  notes  to  pay  at  home  ;  have  farms,  shops,  facto- 
ries, affairs  of  every  kind  to  think  of  and  write  home 
about.  Consider  what  sacrifice  and  havoc  in  business 
arrangements  this  war-blast  made.  They  have  to  think 
carefully  of  every  last  resource  at  home  on  which  their 
wives  or  mothers  may  fall  back  ;  upon  the  little  account 
in  the  savings-bank,  the  grass  that  can  be  sold,  the  old 
cow,  or  the  heifer.  These  necessities  make  the  topics 
of  the  ten  thousand  letters  with  which  the  mail-bags 
came  loaded  day  by  day.  These  letters  play  a  great 
part  in  the  war.  The  writing  of  letters  made  the  Sun- 
day in  every  camp  :  —  meantime  they  are  without  the 
means  of  writing.  After  the  first  marches  there  is  no 
letter-paper,  there  are  no  envelopes,  no  postage-stamps, 
for  these  were  wetted  into  a  solid  mass  in  the  rains  and 
mud.  Some  of  these  letters  are  written  on  the  back  of 
old  bills,  some  on  brown  paper,  or  strips  of  newspaper  ; 
written  by  firelight,  making  the  short  night  shorter  ; 
written  on  the  knee,  in  the  mud,  with  pencil,  six  words 
at  a  time  ;  or  in  the  saddle,  and  have  to  stop  because 
the  horse  will  not  stand  still.  But  the  words  are  proud 
and  tender,  —  "  Tell  mother  I  will  not  disgrace  her  ;  " 
"  tell  her  not  to  worry  about  me,  for  I  know  she  would 
not  have  had  me  stay  at  home  if  she  could  as  well  as 
not."  The  letters  of  the  captain  are  the  dearest  treas- 
ures of  this  town.  Always  devoted,  sometimes  anxious, 
sometimes  full  of  joy  at  the  deportment  of  his  comrades, 
they  contain  the  sincere  praise  of  men  whom  I  now  see 
in  this  assembly.  If  Marshal  Montluc's  Memoirs  ar« 


92  ADDRESS. 

the  Bible  of  soldiers,  as  Henry  IV.  of  France  said, 
Colonel  Prescott  might  furnish  the  Book  of  Epistles. 

He  writes,  "  You  don't  know  how  one  gets  attached 
to  a  company  by  living  with  them  and  sleeping  with 
them  all  the  time.  I  know  every  man  by  heart.  I  know 
every  man's  weak  spot,  —  who  is  shaky,  and  who  is  true 
blue."  He  never  remits  his  care  of  the  men,  aiming  to 
hold  them  to  their  good  habits  and  to  keep  them  cheer- 
ful. For  the  first  point,  he  keeps  up  a  constant  ac- 
quaintance with  them  ;  urges  their  correspondence  with 
their  friends  ;  writes  news  of  them  home,  urging  his 
own  correspondent  to  visit  their  families  and  keep  them 
informed  about  the  men;  encourages  a  temperance  soci- 
ety which  is  formed  in  the  camp.  "  I  have  not  had  a 
man  drunk,  or  affected  by  liquor,  since  we  came  here." 
At  one  time  he  finds  his  company  unfortunate  in  having 
fallen  between  two  companies  of  quite  another  class,  — 
"  't  is  profanity  all  the  time :  yet  instead  of  a  bad  in- 
fluence on  our  men,  I  think  it  works  the  other  way,  — 
it  disgusts  them." 

One  day  he  writes  :  "  I  expect  to  have  a  time  this 
forenoon,  with  the  officer  from  West  Point  who  drills 
us.  He  is  very  profane,  and  I  will  not  stand  it.  If  he 
does  not  stop  it,  I  shall  march  my  men  right  away  when 
he  is  drilling  them.  There  is  a  fine  for  officers  swear- 
ing in  the  army,  and  I  have  too  many  young  men  that 
are  not  used  to  such  talk.  I  told  the  colonel  this  morn- 
ing I  should  do  it,  and  shall,  —  don't  care  what  the  con- 
sequence is.  This  lieutenant  seems  to  think  that  these 
men  who  never  saw  a  gun,  can  drill  as  well  as  he,  who 
has  been  at  West  Point  four  years."  At  night  he  adds: 
"  I  told  that  officer  from  West  Point,  this  morning,  that 
he  could  not  swear  at  my  company  as  he  did  yesterday  ; 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT.  93 

told  him  I  would  not  stand  it  any  way.  I  told  him  I 
had  a  good  many  young  men  in  my  company  whose 
mothers  asked  me  to  look  after  them,  and  I  should  do 
so,  and  not  allow  them  to  hear  such  language,  espe- 
cially from  an  officer,  whose  duty  it  was  to  set  them 
a  better  example.  Told  him  I  did  not  swear  myself  and 
would  not  allow  him  to.  He  looked  at  me  as  much 
as  to  say,  Do  you  know  whom  you  are  talking  to  ?  and  I 
looked  at  him  as  much  as  to  say,  Yes,  I  do.  He  looked 
rather  ashamed,  but  went  through  the  drill  without  an 
oath."  So  much  for  the  care  of  their  morals.  His  next 
point  is  to  keep  them  cheerful.  'T  is  better  than  medi- 
cine. He  has  games  of  base-ball,  and  pitching  quoits, 
and  euchre,  whilst  part  of  the  military  discipline  is 
sham-fights. 

The  best  men  heartily  second  him,  and  invent  excel- 
lent means  of  their  own.  When,  afterwards,  five  of 
these  men  were  prisoners  in  the  Parish  Prison  in  New 
Orleans,  they  set  themselves  to  use  the  time  to  the 
wisest  advantage,  —  formed  a  debating  club,  wrote  a 
daily  or  weekly  newspaper,  called  it  "  Stars  and  Stripes." 
It  advertises,  "  prayer  meeting  at  7  o'clock,  in  cell  No. 
8,  second  floor,"  and  their  own  printed  record  is  a  proud 
and  affecting  narrative. 

Whilst  the  regiment  was  encamped  at  Camp  Andrew, 
near  Alexandria,  in  June,  1861,  marching  orders  came. 
Colonel  Lawrence  sent  for  eight  wagons,  but  only  three 
came.  On  these  they  loaded  all  the  canvas  of  the  tents, 
but  took  no  tent-poles. 

"  It  looked  very  much  like  a  severe  thunder-storm," 
writes  the  captain,  "  and  I  knew  the  men  would  all  have 
to  sleep  out  of  doors,  unless  we  carried  them.  So  I 
took  six  poles,  and  went  to  the  colonel,  and  told  him  J 


94  ADDRESS. 

had  got  the  poles  for  two  tents,  which  would  cover 
twenty  -  four  men,  and  unless  he  ordered  me  not  to 
carry  them,  I  should  do  so.  He  said  he  had  no  objec- 
tion, only  thought  they  would  be  too  much  for  me.  We 
only  had  about  twelve  men  "  (  the  rest  of  the  company 
being,  perhaps,  on  picket  or  other  duty),  "  and  some  of 
them  have  their  heavy  knapsacks  and  guns  to  carry,  so 
could  not  carry  any  poles.  We  started  and  marched 
two  miles  without  stopping  to  rest,  not  having  hud  any- 
thing to  eat,  and  being  very  hot  and  dry."  At  this  time 
Captain  Prescott  was  daily  threatened  with  sickness, 
and  suffered  the  more  from  this  heat.  "  I  told  Lieu- 
tenant Bowers,  this  morning,  that  I  could  afford  to  be 
sick  from  bringing  the  tent-poles,  for  it  saved  the  whole 
regiment  from  sleeping  out  doors  ;  for  they  would  not 
have  thought  of  it,  if  I  had  not  taken  mine.  The  major 
had  tried  to  discourage  me  ;  —  said,  '  perhaps,  if  I  car- 
ried them  over,  some  other  company  would  get  them  ; ' 
—  L  told  him,  perhaps  he  did  not  think  I  was  smart." 
He  had  the  satisfaction  to  see  the  whole  regiment  en- 
joying the  protection  of  these  tents. 

In  the  disastrous  battle  of  Bull  Run  this  company 
behaved  well,  and  the  regimental  officers  believed,  what 
is  now  the  general  conviction  of  the  country,  that  the 
misfortunes  of  the  day  were  not  so  much  owing  to  the 
fault  of  the  troops,  as  to  the  insufficiency  of  the  combi- 
nations by  the  general  officers.  It  happened,  also,  that 
the  Fifth  Massachusetts  was  almost  unofficered.  The 
colonel  was,  early  in  the  day,  disabled  by  a  casualty  ; 
the  lieutenant-colonel,  the  major  and  the  adjutant  were 
already  transferred  to  new  regiments,  and  their  places 
were  not  yet  filled.  The  three  months  of  the  enlist- 
ment expired  a  few  days  after  the  battle. 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT.  95 

In  the  fall  of  1861,  the  old  Artillery  company  of  this 
town  was  reorganized,  and  Captain  Richard  Barrett 
received  a  commission  in  March,  1862,  from  the  State, 
as  its  commander.  This  company,  chiefly  recruited 
here,  was  later  embodied  in  the  Forty-seventh  Regi- 
ment, Massachusetts  Volunteers,  enlisted  as  nine  months' 
men,  and  sent  fa  New  Orleans,  where  they  were  em- 
ployed in  guard  duty  during  their  term  of  service. 
Captain  Humphrey  H.  Buttrick,  lieutenant  in  this  regi- 
ment, as  he  had  been  already  lieutenant  in  Captain 
Prescott's  company  in  1861,  went  out  again  in  August, 
1864,  a  captain  in  the  Fifty-ninth  Massachusetts,  and 
saw  hard  service  in  the  Ninth  Corps,  under  General 
Burnside.  The  regiment  being  formed  of  veterans,  and 
in  fields  requiring  great  activity  and  exposure,  suffered 
extraordinary  losses  ;  Captain  Buttrick  and  one  other 
officer  being  the  only  officers  in  it  who  were  neither 
killed,  wounded,  nor  captured.  In  August,  1862,  on 
the  new  requisition  for  troops,  when  it  was  becoming 
difficult  to  meet  the  draft, — mainly  through  the  per- 
sonal example  and  influence  of  Mr.  Sylvester  Lovejoy, 
twelve  men,  including  himself,  were  enlisted  for  three 
years,  and,  being  soon  after  enrolled  in  the  Fortieth 
Massachusetts,  went  to  the  war  ;  and  a  very  good  ac- 
count has  been  heard,  not  only  of  the  regiment,  but  of 
the  talents  and  virtues  of  these  men. 

After  the  return  of  the  three  months'  company  to 
Concord,  in  1861,  Captain  Preseott  raised  a  new  com- 
pany of  volunteers,  and  Captain  Bowers  another.  Each 
of  these  companies  included  recruits  from  this  town, 
and  they  formed  part  of  the  Thirty-second  Regiment 
of  Massachusetts  Volunteers.  Enlisting  for  three  years, 
and  remaining  to  the  end  of  the  war,  these  troops  saw 


96  ADDRESS. 

every  variety  of  hard  service  which  the  war  offered, 
and,  though  suffering  at  first  some  disadvantage  from 
change  of  commanders,  and  from  severe  losses,  they 
grew  at  last,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Prescott, 
to  an  excellent  reputation,  attested  by  the  names  of  the 
thirty  battles  they  were  authorized  to  inscribe  on  their 
flag,  and  by  the  important  position  usually  assigned 
them  in  the  field. 

I  have  found  many  notes  of  their  rough  experience  in 
the  march  and  in  the  held.  In  McClellan's  retreat  in 
the  Peninsula,  in  July,  1862,  "  it  is  all  our  men  can 
do  to  draw  their  feet  out  of  the  mud.  We  marched 
one  mile  through  mud,  without  exaggeration,  one  foot 
deep,  —  a  good  deal  of  the  way  over  my  boots,  and 
with  short  rations  ;  on  one  day  nothing  but  liver,  black- 
berries, and  pennyroyal  tea."  —  "  At  Fredericksburg 
we  lay  for  eleven  hours  in  one  spot  without  moving, 
except  to  rise  and  fire."  The  next  note  is,  "  cracker  for 
a  day  and  a  half,  — but  all  right."  Another  day,  "  had 
not  left  the  ranks  for  thirty  hours,  and  the  nights  were 
broken  by  frequent  alarms.  How  would  Concord  peo- 
ple," he  asks,  "  like  to  pass  the  night  on  the  battle-field, 
and  hear  the  dying  cry  for  help,  and  not  be  able  to  go 
to  them  ?  "  But  the  regiment  did  good  service  at  Har- 
rison's Landing,  and  at  Antietam,  under  Colonel  Par- 
ker ;  and  at  Fredericksburg,  in  December,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Prescott  loudly  expresses  his  satisfaction  at  his 
comrades,  now  and  then  particularizing  names  :  "  Bow- 
ers, Shepard  and  Lauriat  are  as  brave  as  lions." 

At  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  in  July,  1863,  the  brigade 
of  which  the  Thirty-second  Regiment  formed  a  part, 
was  in  line  of  battle  seventy-two  hours,  and  suffered 
severely.  Colonel  Prescott's  regiment  went  in  with 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT.  97 

two  hundred  and  ten  men,  nineteen  officers.  On  the 
second  of  July  they  had  to  cross  the  famous  wheat-field, 
under  fire  from  the  rebels  in  front  and  on  both  flanks. 
Seventy  men  were  killed  or  wounded  out  of  seven  com- 
panies. Here  Francis  Buttrick,  whose  manly  beauty  all 
of  us  remember,  and  Sergeant  Appleton,  an  excellent 
soldier,  were  fatally  wounded.  The  colonel  was  hit  by 
three  bullets.  "  I  feel,"  he  writes,  "  I  have  much  to  be 
thankful  for  that  my  life  is  spared,  although  I  would 
willingly  die  to  have  the  regiment  do  as  well  as  they 
have  done.  Our  colors  had  several  holes  made,  and 
were  badly  torn.  One  bullet  hit  the  staff  which  the 
bearer  had  in  his  hand.  The  color-bearer  is  brave  as  a 
lion ;  he  will  go  anywhere  you  say,  and  no  questions 
asked  ;  his  name  is  Marshall  Davis."  The  Colonel  took 
evident  pleasure  in  the  fact  that  he  could  account  for  all 
his  men.  There  were  so  many  killed,  so  many  wounded, 
—  but  no  missing.  For  that  word  "  missing  "  was  apt 
to  mean  skulking.  Another  incident  :  "  A  friend  of 
Lieutenant  Barrow  complains  that  we  did  not  treat  his 
body  with  respect,  inasmuch  as  we  did  not  send  it  home. 
I  think  we  were  very  fortunate  to  save  it  at  all,  for 
in  ten  minutes  after  he  was  killed  the  rebels  occupied 
the  ground,  and  we  had  to  carry  him  and  all  of  our 
wounded  nearly  two  miles  in  blankets.  There  was  no 
place  nearer  than  Baltimore  where  we  could  have  got  a 
coffin,  and  I  suppose  it  was  eighty  miles  there.  We 
laid  him  in  two  double  blankets,  and  then  sent  off  a 
long  distance  and  got  boards  off  a  barn  to  make  the 
best  coffin  we  could,  and  gave  him  burial." 

After  Gettysburg,  Colonel  Prescott  remarks  that  our 
regiment  is  highly  complimented.  When  Colonel  Gur- 
ney,  of  the  Ninth,  came  to  him  the  next  day  to  tell  him 


98  ADDRESS. 

that  "  folks  are  just  beginning  to  appreciate  the  Thirty- 
second  Regiment :  it  always  was  a  good  regiment,  and 
people  are  just  beginning  to  find  it  out  ;  "  Colonel  Pres- 
cott  notes  in  his  journal,  —  "  Pity  they  have  not  found 
it  out  before  it  was  all  gone.  We  have  a  hundred  and 
seventy-seven  guns  this  morning." 

Let  me  add  an  extract  from  the  official  report  of 
the  brigade  commander  :  "  Word  was  sent  by  General 
Barnes,  that,  when  we  retired,  we  should  fall  back  un- 
der cover  of  the  woods.  This  order  was  communicated 
to  Colonel  Prescott,  whose  regiment  was  then  under 
the  hottest  fire.  Understanding  it  to  be  a  peremptory 
order  to  retire  them,  he  replied,  '  I  don't  want  to  re- 
tire ;  I  am  not  ready  to  retire  ;  I  can  hold  this  place  ; ' 
and  he  made  good  his  assertion.  Being  informed  that 
he  misunderstood  the  order,  which  was  only  to  inform 
him  how  to  retire  when  it  became  necessary,  he  was 
satisfied,  and  he  and  his  command  held  their  ground 
manfully."  It  was  said  that  Colonel  Prescott's  replv, 
when  reported,  pleased  the  Acting  Brigadier-General 
Sweitzer  mightily. 

After  Gettysburg,  the  Thirty-second  Regiment  saw 
hard  service  at  Rappahannock  Station;  and  at  Balti- 
more, in  Virginia,  where  they  were  drawn  up  in  battle 
order  for  ten  days  successively;  crossing  the  Rapidan, 
and  suffering  from  such  extreme  cold,  a  few  days  later, 
at  Mine  Run,  that  the  men  were  compelled  to  break 
rank  and  run  in  circles  to  keep  themselves  from  being 
frozen.  On  the  third  of  December,  they  went  into  win- 
ter quarters. 

I  must  not  follow  the  multiplied  detaib  that  make 
the  hard  work  of  the  next  year.  But  the  campaign 
in  the  Wilderness  surpassed  all  their  worst  experience 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT.  99 

hitherto  of  the  soldier's  life.  On  the  third  of  May, 
they  crossed  the  Rapidan  for  the  fifth  time.  On  the 
twelfth,  at  Laurel  Hill,  the  regiment  had  twenty-one 
killed  and  seventy-five  wounded,  including  five  officers. 
"  The  regiment  has  been  in  the  front  and  centre  since 
the  battle  begun,  eight  and  a  half  days  ago,  and  is 
now  building  breastworks  on  the  Fredericksburg  road. 
This  has  been  the  hardest  fight  the  world  ever  knew. 
I  think  the  loss  of  our  army  will  be  forty  thousand. 
Every  day,  for  the  last  eight  days,  there  has  been  a 
terrible  battle  the  whole  length  of  the  line.  One  day 
they  drove  us  ;  but  it  has  been  regular  bull-dog  fight- 
ing." On  the  twenty-first,  they  had  been,  for  seven- 
teen days  and  nights,  under  arms  without  rest.  On 
the  twenty-third,  they  crossed  the  North  Anna,  and 
achieved  a  great  success.  On  the  thirtieth,  we  learn, 
"  Our  regiment  has  never  been  in  the  second  line  since 
we  crossed  the  Rapidan,  on  the  third."  On  the  night 
of  the  thirtieth,  —  "  The  hardest  day  we  ever  had.  We 
have  been  in  the  first  line  twenty-six  days,  and  fighting 
every  day  but  two;  whilst  your  newspapers  talk  of  the 
inactivity  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  If  those  writ- 
ers could  be  here  and  fight  all  day,  and  sleep  in  the 
trenches,  and  be  called  up  several  times  in  the  night 
by  picket-firing,  they  would  not  call  it  inactive."  June 
fourth  is  marked  in  the  diary  as  "  An  awful  day ;  —  two 
hundred  men  lost  to  the  command ;  "  and  not  until  the 
fifth  of  June  comes  at  last  a  respite  for  a  short  space, 
during  which  the  men  drew  shoes  and  socks,  and  the 
officers  were  able  to  send  to  the  wagons  and  procure  a 
change  of  clothes,  for  the  first  time  in  five  weeks. 

But  from  these  incessant  labors  there  was  now  to 
be  rest  for  one  head,  —  the  honored  and  beloved  com- 


100  ADDRESS. 

mander  of  the  regiment.  On  the  sixteenth  of  June, 
they  crossed  the  James  River,  and  marched  to  within 
three  miles  of  Petersburg.  Early  in  the  morning  of 
the  eighteenth  they  went  to  the  front,  formed  line  of 
battle,  and  were  ordered  to  take  the  Norfolk  and 
Petersburg  Railroad  from  the  Rebels.  In  this  charge, 
Colonel  George  L.  Prescott  was  mortally  wounded. 
After  driving  the  enemy  from  the  railroad,  crossing  it, 
and  climbing  the  farther  bank  to  continue  the  charge, 
he  was  struck,  in  front  of  his  command,  by  a  musket 
ball  which  entered  his  breast  near  the  heart.  He  was 
carried  off  the  field  to  the  division  hospital,  and  died 
on  the  following  morning.  On  his  death-bed,  he  re- 
ceived the  needless  assurances  of  his  general,  that  "  he 
had  done  more  than  all  his  duty,"  —  needless  to  a  con- 
science so  faithful  and  unspotted.  One  of  his  towns- 
men and  comrades,  a  sergeant  in  his  regiment,  writing 
to  his  own  family,  used  these  words:  "  He  was  one  of 
the  few  men  who  fight  for  principle.  He  did  not  fight 
for  glory,  honor,  nor  money,  but  because  he  thought  it 
his  duty.  These  are  not  my  feelings  only,  but  of  the 
whole  regiment." 

On  the  first  of  January,  1865,  the  Thirty-second 
Regiment  made  itself  comfortable  in  log  huts,  a  mile 
south  of  our  rear  line  of  works  before  Petersburg.  On 
the  fourth  of  February,  sudden  orders  came  to  move 
next  morning  at  daylight.  At  Dabney's  Mills,  in  a 
sharp  fight,  they  lost  seventy-four  in  killed,  wounded 
and  missing.  Here  Major  Shepard  was  taken  prisoner. 
The  Hues  were  held  until  the  tenth,  with  more  than 
usual  suffering  from  snow  and  hail  and  intense  cold, 
added  to  the  annoyance  of  the  artillery  fire.  On  the 
first  of  April,  the  regiment  connected  with  Sheridan's 


SOLDIKRS'   MONUMENT.  101 

cavalry,  near  the  Five  Forks,  and  took  an  important 
part  in  that  battle  which  opened  Petersburg  and  Rich- 
mond, and  forced  the  surrender  of  Lee.  On  the  ninth, 
they  marched  in  support  of  the  cavalry,  and  were 
advancing  in  a  grand  charge,  when  the  white  flag  of 
Gen.  Lee  appeared.  The  brigade  of  which  the  Thirty- 
second  Regiment  formed  part  was  detailed  to  receive 
the  formal  surrender  of  the  Rebel  arms.  The  home- 
ward march  began  on  the  thirteenth,  and  the  regiment 
was  mustered  out  in  the  field,  at  Washington,  on  the 
twenty-eighth  of  June,  and  arrived  in  Boston  on  the 
first  of  July. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS:  The  obelisk  records  only  the  names 
of  the  dead.  There  is  something  partial  in  this  distri- 
bution of  honor.  Those  who  went  through  those  dread- 
ful fields  and  returned  not,  deserve  much  more  than 
all  the  honor  we  can  pay.  But  those  also  who  went 
through  the  same  fields  and  returned  alive,  put  just  as 
much  at  hazard  as  those  who  died,  and,  in  other  coun- 
tries, would  wear  distinctive  badges  of  honor  as  long 
as  they  lived.  I  hope  the  disuse  of  such  medals  or 
badges  in  this  country  only  signifies  that  everybody 
knows  these  men,  and  carries  their  deed  in  such  lively 
remembrance  that  they  require  no  badge  or  reminder.. 
I  am  sure  I  need  not  bespeak  your  gratitude  to  thesa 
fellow-citizens  and  neighbors  of  ours.  I  hope  they  will 
be  content  with  the  laurels  of  one  war. 

But  let  me,  in  behalf  of  this  assembly,  speak  directly 
to  you,  our  defenders,  and  say,  that  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  if  danger  should  ever  threaten  thj  homes  which 
you  guard,  the  knowledge  of  your  presence  will  be  a 
wall  of  fire  for  their  protection.  Brave  men  !  you  will 


102  ADDRESS. 

hardly  be  called  to  see  again  fields  as  terrible  as  those 
you  have  already  trampled  with  your  victories. 

There  are  people  who  can  hardly  read  the  names  on 
yonder  bronze  tablet,  the  mist  so  gathers  in  their  eyes. 
Three  of  the  names  are  of  sons  of  one  family.  A  gloom 
gathers  on  this  assembly,  composed  as  it  is  of  kindred 
men  and  women,  for,  in  many  houses,  the  dearest  and 
noblest  is  gone  from  their  hearthstone.  Yet  it  is  tinged 
with  light  from  heaven.  A  duty  so  severe  has  been 
discharged,  and  with  such  immense  results  of  good, 
lifting  private  sacrifice  to  the  sublime,  that,  though  the 
cannon  volleys  have  a  sound  of  funeral  echoes,  they 
can  yet  hear  through  them  the  benedictions  of  their 
country  and  mankind. 


APPENDIX. 

IN  the  above  Address  I  have  been  compelled  to  sup- 
press more  details  of  personal  interest  than  I  have 
used.  But  I  do  not  like  to  omit  the  testimony  to  the 
character  of  the  Commander  of  the  Thirty -second  Mas- 
sachusetts Regiment,  given  in  the  following  letter  by 
one  of  his  soldiers  :  — 

NEAR  PETERSBURG,  VIRGINIA, 

June  20,  1864. 
DEAR  FATHER : 

With  feelings  of  deep  regret,  I  inform  you  that  Colo- 
nel Prescott,  our  brave  and  lamented  leader,  is  no  more. 
He  was  shot  through  the  body,  near  the  heart,  on  the 
eighteenth  day  of  June,  and  died  the  following  morn. 


SOLDIERS'    MONUMENT.  103 

ing.  On  the  morning  of  the  eighteenth,  our  division 
was  not  in  line.  Reveille  was  at  an  early  hour,  and 
before  long  we  were  moving  to  the  front.  Soon  we 
passed  the  ground  where  the  Ninth  Corps  drove  the 
enemy  from  their  fortified  lines,  and  came  upon  and 
formed  our  line  in  rear  of  Crawford's  Division.  In 
front  of  us,  and  one  mile  distant,  the  Rebels'  lines  of 
works  could  be  seen.  Between  us  and  them,  and  in  a 
deep  gulley,  was  the  Norfolk  and  Petersburg  Railroad. 
Soon  the  order  came  for  us  to  take  the  railroad  from 
the  enemy,  whose  advance  then  held  it.  Four  regi- 
ments of  our  brigade  were  to  head  the  charge  ;  so  the 
32d  Massachusetts,  62d,  91st  and  15oth  Pennsylvania 
regiments,  under  command  of  Colonel  Gregory,  moved 
forward  in  good  order,  the  enemy  keeping  up  a  steady 
fire  all  the  time.  All  went  well  till  we  reached  the 
road.  The  Rebels  left  when  they  saw  us  advance,  and, 
when  we  reached  the  road,  they  were  running  away. 
But  here  our  troubles  began.  The  banks,  on  each  side 
of  the  road,  were  about  thirty  feet  high,  and,  being  stiff 
clay,  were  nearly  perpendicular.  We  got  down  well 
enough,  because  we  got  started,  and  were  rolled  to  the 
bottom,  a  confused  pile  of  Yanks.  Now  to  climb  the 
other  side  !  It  was  impossible  to  get  up  by  climbing, 
for  the  side  of  it  was  like  the  side  of  a  house.  By  dint 
of  getting  on  each  other's  shoulders  and  making  holes 
for  our  feet  with  bayonets,  a  few  of  us  got  up  ;  reach- 
ing our  guns  down  to  the  others,  we  all  finally  got  over. 
Meanwhile,  a  storm  of  bullets  was  rained  upon  us. 
Through  it  all,  Colonel  Prescott  was  cool  and  collected, 
encouraging  the  men  to  do  their  best.  After  we  were 
almost  all  across,  he  moved  out  in  front  of  the  line, 
and  called  the  men  out  to  him,  saying,  "  Come  on,  men  ; 


104  ADDRESS. 

form  our  line  here."  The  color-bearer  stepped  towards 
him,  when  a  bullet  struck  the  Colonel,  passed  through 
him,  and  wounded  the  color-bearer,  Sergeant  Giles,  of 
Company  G.  Calmly  the  Colonel  turned,  and  said,  "  I 
am  wounded  ;  some  one  help  me  off."  A  sergeant  of 
Company  B,  and  one  of.  the  *21st  Pennsylvania,  helped 
him  off.  This  man  told  me,  last  night,  all  that  the 
Colonel  said,  while  going  off.  He  was  afraid  we  would 
be  driven  back,  and  wanted  these  men  to  stick  by  him. 
He  said,  "  I  die  for  my  country."  He  seemed  to  be 
conscious  that  death  was  near  to  him,  and  said  the 
wound  was  near  his  heart  ;  wanted  the  sergeant  of 
Company  B  to  write  to  his  family,  and  tell  them  all 
about  him.  He  will  write  to  Mrs.  Prescott,  probably  ; 
but  if  they  do  not  hear  from  some  one  an  account  of 
his  death,  I  wish  you  would  show  this  to  Mrs.  Prescott. 
He  died  in  the  division  hospital,  night  before  last,  and 
his  remains  will  probably  be  sent  to  Concord.  We  la- 
ment his  loss  in  the  regiment  very  much.  He  was  like 
a  father  to  us, —  always  counselling  us  to  be  firm  in  the 
path  of  duty,  and  setting  the  example  himself.  I  think 
a  more  moral  man,  or  one  more  likely  to  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  cannot  be  found  in  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac.  Xo  man  ever  heard  him  swear,  or  saw 
him  use  liquor,  since  we  were  in  the  service.  I  wish 
there  was  some  way  for  the  regiment  to  pay  some  trib- 
ute to  his  memory.  But  the  folks  at  home  must  do 
this  for  the  present.  The  Thirty-second  regiment  has 
lost  its  leader,  and  calls  on  the  people  of  Concord  to 
console  the  afflicted  family  of  the  brave  departed,  by 
showing  their  esteem  for  him  in  some  manner.  He  was 
one  of  the  few  men  who  fight  for  principle,  —  pure 
principle.  He  did  not  fight  for  glory,  honor,  nor  money, 


SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT.  105 

but  because  he  thought  it  his  duty.  These  are  not  my 
feelings  only,  but  of  the  whole  regiment.  I  want  you 
to  show  this  to  every  one,  so  they  can  see  what  we 
thought  of  the  Colonel,  and  how  he  died  in  front  of  his 
regiment.  God  bless  and  comfort  his  poor  family. 
Perhaps  people  think  soldiers  have  no  feeling,  but  it  is 
not  so.  We  feel  deep  anxiety  for  the  families  of  all 
our  dear  comrades.  CHARLES  BARTLETT, 

Sergeant  Company  G, 
Thirty-second  Massachusetts  Volunteers, 


ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  IN  CONCORD  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY    OF  THE 

EMANCIPATION  OF  THE   NEGROES  IN  THE   BRITISH 

WEST  INDIES,   AUGUST  1,   1844. 


ADDRESS 

ON   EMANCIPATION  IN   THE   BRITISH   WEST  INDIES. 


FRIENDS  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  : 

We  are  met  to  exchange  congratulations  on  the  anni- 
versary of  an  event  singular  in  the  history  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  a  day  of  reason  ;  of  the  clear  light ;  of  that  which 
makes  us  better  than  a  flock  of  birds  and  beasts  :  a  day 
which  gave  the  immense  fortification  of  a  fact,  of  gross 
history,  to  ethical  abstractions.  It  was  the  settlement, 
as  far  as  a  great  Empire  was  concerned,  of  a  question 
on  which  almost  every  leading  citizen  in  it  had  taken 
care  to  record  his  vote  ;  one  which  for  many  years  ab- 
sorbed the  attention  of  the  best  and  most  eminent  of 
mankind.  I  might  well  hesitate,  coming  from  other 
studies,  and  without  the  smallest  claim  to  be  a  special 
laborer  in  this  work  of  humanity,  to  undertake  to  set 
this  matter  before  you  ;  which  ought  rather  to  be  done 
by  a  strict  cooperation  of  many  well-advised  persons  ; 
but  I  shall  not  apologize  for  my  weakness.  In  this 
cause,  no  man's  weakness  is  any  prejudice  :  it  has  a 
thousand  sons  ;  if  one  man  cannot  speak,  ten  others 
can  ;  and,  whether  by  the  wisdom  of  its  friends,  or  by 
the  folly  of  the  adversaries  ;  by  speech  and  by  silence  ; 


HO  ADDRESS. 

by  doing  and  by  omitting  to  do,  it  goes  forward.  There- 
fore I  will  speak,  —  or,  not  I,  but  the  might  of  liberty 
in  my  weakness.  The  subject  is  said  to  have  the  prop- 
erty of  making  dull  men  eloquent. 

It  has  been  in  all  men's  experience  a  mai-ked  effect 
of  the  enterprise  in  behalf  of  the  African,  to  generate 
an  overbearing  and  defying  spirit.  The  institution  of 
slavery  seems  to  its  opponent  to  have  but  one  side,  and 
he  feels  that  none  but  a  stupid  or  a  malignant  person  can  " 
hesitate  on  a  view  of  the  facts.  Under  such  an  impulse, 
I  was  about  to  say,  If  any  cannot  speak,  or  cannot  hear 
the  words  of  freedom,  let  him  go  hence,  —  I  had  almost 
said,  Creep  into  your  grave,  the  universe  has  no  need 
of  you  !  But  I  have  thought  better  :  let  him  not  go. 
When  we  consider  what  remains  to  be  done  for  this  in- 
terest in  this  country,  the  dictates  of  humanity  make  us 
tender  of  such  as  are  not  yet  persuaded.  The  hardest 
selfishness  is  to  be  borne  with.  Let  us  withhold  every 
reproachful,  and,  if  we  can,  every  indignant  remark. 
In  this  cause,  we  must  renounce  our  temper,  and  the 
risings  of  pride.  If  there  be  any  man  who  thinks  the 
ruin  of  a  race  of  men  a  small  matter,  compared  with 
the  last  decoration  and  completions  of  his  own  comfort, 
—  who  would  not  so  much  as  part  with  his  ice-cream, 
to  save  them  from  rapine  and  manacles,  I  think  I  must 
not  hesitate  to  satisfy  that  man  that  also  his  cream  and 
vanilla  are  safer  and  cheaper  by  placing  the  negro  na- 
tion on  a  fair  footing,  than  by  robbing  them.  If  the 
Virginian  piques  himself  on  the  picturesque  luxury  of 
his  vassalage,  on  the  heavy  Ethiopian  manners  of  his 
house  -  servants,  their  silent  obedience,  their  hue  of 
bronze,  their  turbaned  heads,  and  would  not  exchange 
them  for  the  more  intelligent  but  precarious  hired  serv- 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  Ill 

ice  of  whites,  I  shall  not  refuse  to  show  him  that  when 
their  free-papers  are  made  out,  it  will  still  be  their  in- 
terest to  remain  on  his  estate,  and  that  the  oldest  plant- 
ers of  Jamaica  are  convinced  that  it  is  cheaper  to  pay 
wages  than  to  own  the  slave. 

The  history  of  mankind  interests  us  only  as  it  exhib- 
its a  steady  gain  of  truth  and  right,  in  the  incessant 
conflict  which  it  records  between  the  material  and  the 
moral  nature.  From  the  earliest  monuments  it  appears 
that  one  race  was  victim  and  served  the  other  races.  In 
the  oldest  temples  of  Egypt,  negro  captives  are  painted 
on  the  tombs  of  kings,  in  such  attitudes  as  to  show  that 
they  are  on  the  point  of  being  executed  ;  and  Herod- 
otus, our  oldest  historian,  relates  that  the  Troglodytes 
hunted  the  Ethiopians  in  four-horse  chariots.  From 
the  earliest  time,  the  negro  has  been  an  article  of  lux- 
ury to  the  commercial  nations.  So  has  it  been,  down  to 
the  day  that  has  just  dawned  on  the  world.  Language 
must  be  raked,  the  secrets  of  slaughter-houses  and  in- 
famous holes  that  cannot  front  the  day,  must  be  ran- 
sacked, to  tell  what  negro  -  slavery  has  been.  These 
men,  our  benefactors,  as  they  are  producers  of  corn  and 
wine,  of  coffee,  of  tobacco,  of  cotton,  of  sugar,  of  rum 
and  brandy  ;  gentle  and  joyous  themselves,  and  pro- 
ducers of  comfort  and  luxury  for  the  civilized  world,  — 
there  seated  in  the  finest  climates  of  the  globe,  children 
of  the  sun, — I  am  heart-sick  when  I  read  how  they 
came  there,  and  how  they  are  kept  there.  Their  case  was 
left  out  of  the  mind  and  out  of  the  heart  of  their  broth- 
ers. The  prizes  of  society,  the  trumpet  of  fame,  the 
privileges  of  learning,  of  culture,  of  religion,  the  decen- 
cies and  joys  of  marriage,  honor,  obedience,  personal 
authority  ajid  a  perpetual  melioration  into  a  finer  civil- 


112  ADDRESS. 

ity,  these  were  for  all,  but  not  for  them.  For  the  negro, 
was  the  slave- ship  to  begin  with,  in  whose  filthy  hold 
he  sat  in  irons,  unable  to  lie  down  ;  bad  food,  and  insuf- 
ficiency of  that  ;  disfranchisemeiit  ;  no  property  in  the 
rags  that  covered  him  ;  no  marriage,  no  right  in  the 
poor  black  woman  that  cherished  him  in  her  bosom,  no 
right  to  the  children  of  his  body  ;  no  security  from  the 
humors,  none  from  the  crimes,  none  from  the  appetites 
of  his  master  :  toil,  famine,  insult  and  flogging  ;  and, 
when  he  sank  in  the  furrow,  no  wind  of  good  fame 
blew  over  him,  no  priest  of  salvation  visited  him  with 
glad  tidings  :  but  he  went  down  to  death  with  dusky 
dreams  of  African  shadow-catchers  and  Obeahs  hunting 
him.  Very  sad  was  the  negro  tradition,  that  the  Great 
Spirit,  in  the  beginning,  offered  the  black  man,  whom 
h.e  loved  better  than  the  buckra,  or  white,  his  choice  of 
two  boxes,  a  big  and  a  little  one.  The  black  man  was 
greedy,  and  chose  the  largest,  "  The  buckra  box  \vas 
full  up  with  pen,  paper  and  whip,  and  the  negro  box 
with  hoe  and  bill ;  and  hoe  and  bill  for  negro  to  this 
day." 

But  the  crude  element  of  good  in  human  affairs  must 
work  and  ripen,  spite  of  whips  and  plantation-laws  and 
West  Indian  interest.  Conscience  rolled  on  its  pillow, 
and  could  not  sleep.  We  sympathize  very  tenderly  here 
with  the  poor  aggrieved  planter,  of  whom  so  many  un- 
pleasant things  are  said  ;  but  if  we  saw  the  whip  ap- 
plied to  old  men,  to  tender  women  ;  and,  undeniably, 
though  I  shrink  to  say  so,  pregnant  women  set  in  the 
treadmill  for  refusing  to  work  ;  when,  not  they,  but  the 
eternal  law  of  animal  nature  refused  to  work  ;  —  if  we 
saw  men's  backs  flayed  with  cowhides,  and  "  hot  rum 
poured  on,  superinduced  with  brine  or  pickle,  rubbed 


WEST    INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  113 

in  with  a  cornhusk,  in  the  scorching  heat  of  the  sun  ;  " 

—  if  we  saw  the  runaways  hunted  with  blood-hounds 
into  swamps  and  hills;  and,  in  cases  of  passion,  a  planter 
throwing  his  negro  into  a  copper  of  boiling  cane- juice, 

—  if  we   saw  these   things  with   eyes,  we   too   should 
wince.      They  are  not  pleasant  sights.      The  blood  is 
moral  :  the  blood  is  an ti- slavery  :  it  runs  cold  in  the 
veins  :  the  stomach  rises  with  disgust,  and  curses  slav- 
ery.    Well,  so  it  happened  ;  a  good  man  or  woman,  a 
country  boy  or  girl,  —  it  would  so  fall  out,  —  once  in  a 
while  saw  these  injuries  and  had  the  indiscretion  to  tell 
of  them.     The  horrid  story  ran  and  flew  ;   the  winds 
blew  it  all  over  the  world.     They  who  heard  it  asked 
their  rich  and  great  friends  if  it  was  true,  or  only  mis- 
sionary lies.     The  richest  and  greatest,  the  prime  min- 
ister of  England,  the  king's  privy  council  were  obliged 
to  say  that  it  was  too  true.    It  became  plain  to  all  men, 
the  more  this  business  was  looked  into,  that  the  crimes 
and  cruelties  of   the  slave  -  traders  and  slave  -  owners 
could  not  be  overstated.     The  more  it  was  searched, 
the  more  shocking  anecdotes  came  up,  —  things  not  to 
be  spoken.       Humane   persons  who  were  informed  of 
the  reports,  insisted  on  proving  them.    Granville  Sharpe 
was  accidentally  made  acquainted  with  the  sufferings 
of  a  slave,  whom  a  West  Indian  planter  had  brought 
with  him  to  London  and  had  beaten  with  a  pistol  on 
his  head,  so  badly  that  his  whole  body  became  diseased, 
and  the  man  useless  to  his  master,  who  left  him  to  go 
whither  he  pleased.     The  man  applied  to  Mr.  William 
Sharpe,  a  charitable  surgeon,  who  attended  the  diseases 
of  the  poor.     In  process  of  time,  he  was  healed.    Gran- 
ville Sharpe  found  him  at  his  brother's  and  procured  a 
place  for  him  in  an  apothecary's  shop.     The  master  ac- 


114  ADDRESS. 

cidentally  met  his  recovered  slave,  and  instantly  endeav- 
ored to  get  possession  of  him  again.  Sharpe  protected 
the  slave.  In  consulting  with  the  lawyers,  they  told 
Sharpe  the  laws  were  against  him.  Sharpe  would  not 
believe  it ;  no  prescription  or.  earth  could  ever  render 
such  iniquities  legal.  '  But  the  decisions  are  against 
you,  and  Lord  Mansfield,  now  Chief  Justice  of  Eng- 
land, leans  to  the  decisions.'  Sharpe  instantly  sat  down 
and  gave  himself  to  the  study  of  English  law  for  moro 
than  two  years,  until  he  had  proved  that  the  opinions 
relied  on,  of  Talbot  and  Yorke,  were  incompatible  with 
the  former  English  decisions  and  with  the  whole  spirit 
of  English  law.  He  published  his  book  in  1769,  and  he 
so  filled  the  heads  and  hearts  of  his  advocates  that  when 
he  brought  the  case  of  George  Somerset,  another  slave, 
before  Lord  Mansfield,  the  slavish  decisions  were  set 
aside,  and  equity  affirmed.  There  is  a  sparkle  of  God's 
righteousness  in  Lord  Mansfield's  judgment,  which  does 
the  heart  good.  Very  unwilling  had  that  great  lawyer 
been  to  reverse  the  late  decisions  ;  he  suggested  twice 
from  the  bench,  in  the  course  of  the  trial,  how  the  ques- 
tion might  be  got  rid  of  :  but  the  hint  was  not  taken  ; 
the  case  was  adjourned  again  and  again,  and  judgment 
delayed.  At  last  judgment  was  demanded,  and  on  the 
22d  June,  1772,  Lord  Mansfield  is  reported  to  have  de- 
cided hi  these  words  :  — 

"  Immemorial  usage  preserves  the  memory  of  posi- 
tive law,  long  after  all  traces  of  the  occasion,  reason,  au- 
thority and  time  of  its  introduction,  are  lost  ;  and  in  a 
case  so  odious  as  the  condition  of  slaves,  must  be  taken 
strictly  ;  ( tracing  the  subject  to  natural  principles,  the 
claim  of  slavery  never  can  be  supported.  )  The  power 
claimed  by  this  return  never  was  in  use  here.  We  can- 


WEST    INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  115 

not  say  the  cause  set  forth  by  this  return  is  allowed  or 
approved  of  by  the  laws  of  this  kingdom;  and  therefore 
the  man  must  be  discharged." 

This  decision  established  the  principle  that  the  "  air 
of  England  is  too  pure  for  any  slave  to  breathe,"  but 
the  wrongs  in  the  islands  were  not  thereby  touched. 
Public  attention,  however,  was  drawn  that  way,  and  the 
methods  of  the  stealing  and  the  transportation  from  Af- 
ric.i  became  noised  abroad.  The  Quakers  got  the  story. 
In  their  plain  meeting-houses  and  prim  dwellings  this 
dismal  agitation  got  entrance.  They  were  rich  :  they 
owned,  for  debt  or  by  inheritance,  island  property  ;  they 
were  religious,  tender  -  hearted  men  and  women  ;  and 
they  had  to  hear  the  news  and  digest  it  as  they  could. 
Six  Quakers  met  in  London  on  the  6th  of  July,  1783, 
—  William  Dillwyn,  Samuel  Hoar,  George  Harrison, 
Thomas  Knowles,  John  Lloyd,  Joseph  Woods,  "  to  con- 
sider what  step  they  should  take  for  the  relief  and  lib- 
eration of  the  negro  slaves  in  the  West  Indies,  and  for 
the  discouragement  of  the  slave-trade  on  the  coast  of 
Africa."  They  made  friends  and  raised  money  for  the 
slave  ;  they  interested  their  Yearly  Meeting  ;  and  all 
English  and  all  American  Quakers.  John  Woolman  of 
New  Jersey,  whilst  yet  an  apprentice,  was  uneasy  in  his 
mind  when  he  was  set  to  write  a  bill  of  sale  of  a  negro, 
for  his  master.  He  gave  his  testimony  against  the  traf- 
fic, in  Maryland  and  Virginia.  Thomas  Clarkson  was  a 
youth  at  Cambridge,  England,  when  the  subject  given 
out  for  a  Latin  prize  dissertation  was,  "  Is  it  right  to 
make  slaves  of  others  against  their  will  ?  "  He  wrote 
an  essay,  and  won  the  prize  ;  but  he  wrote  too  well  for 
his  own  peace  ;  he  began  to  ask  himself  if  these  things 
could  be  true  ;  and  if  they  were,  he  could  no  longer 


116  ADDRESS. 

rest.  He  left  Cambridge  ;  he  fell  in  with  the  six  Quak- 
ers. They  engaged  him  to  act  for  them.  He  himself 
interested  Mr.  Wilherforce  in  the  matter.  The  ship- 
masters in  that  trade  were  the  greatest  miscreants,  and 
guilty  of  every  harbarity  to  their  own  crews.  Clarkson 
•went  to  Bristol,  made  himself  acquainted  with  the  inte- 
rior of  the  slave-ships  and  the  details  of  the  trade.  The 
facts  confirmed  his  sentiment,  "  that  Providence  had 
never  made  that  to  be  wise  which  was  immoral,  and 
that  the  slave-trade  was  as  impolitic  as  it  was  unjust  ; " 
that  it  was  found  peculiarly  fatal  to  those  employed  in 
it.  More  seamen  died  in  that  trade  in  one  year  than  in 
the  whole  remaining  trade  of  the  country  in  two.  Mr. 
Pitt  and  Mr.  Fox  were  drawn  into  the  generous  enter- 
prise. In  1788,  the  House  of  Commons  voted  parlia- 
mentary inquiry.  In  1791,  a  bill  to  abolish  the  trade 
was  brought  in  by  Wilberforce,  and  supported  by  him 
and  by  Fox  and  Burke  and  Pitt,  with  the  utmost  ability 
and  faithfulness  ;  resisted  by  the  planters  and  the  whole 
West  Indian  interest,  and  lost.  During  the  next  six- 
teen years,  ten  times,  year  after  year,  the  attempt  was 
renewed  by  Mr.  Wilberforce,  and  ten  times  defeated 
by  the  planters.  The  king,  and  all  the  royal  family  but 
one,  were  against  it.  These  debates  are  instructive,  as 
they  show  on  what  grounds  the  trade  was  assailed  and 
defended.  Everything  generous,  wise  and  sprightly  is 
sure  to  come  to  the  attack.  On  the  other  part  are  found 
cold  prudence,  barefaced  selfishness  and  silent  votes. 
But  the  nation  was  aroused  to  enthusiasm.  Every  hor- 
rid fa^t  became  known.  In  1791,  three  hundred  thou- 
sand persons  in  Britain  pledged  themselves  to  abstain 
from  all  articles  of  island  produce.  The  planters  were 
obliged  to  give  way  ;  and  in  1807,  on  the  25th  March, 
the  bill  passed,  and  the  slave-trade  was  abolished. 


WKST    INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  117 

The  assailants  of  slavery  had  early  agreed  to  limit 
their  political  action  on  this  subject  to  the  abolition  of 
the  trade,  but  Granville  Sharpe,  as  a  matter  of  con- 
science, whilst  he  acted  as  chairman  of  the  London 
Committee,  felt  constrained  to  record  his  protest  against 
the  limitation,  declaring  that  slavery  was  as  much  a 
crime  against  the  Divine  law,  as  the  slave-trade.  The 
trade,  under  false  flags,  went  on  as  before.  In  18J1, 
according  to  official  documents  presented  to  the  Amer- 
ican government  by  the  Colonization  Society,  200,030 
slaves  were  deported  from  Africa.  Nearly  30,000  were 
landed  in  the  port  of  Havana  alone.  In  consequence  of 
the  dangers  of  the  trade  growing  out  of  the  act  of  abo- 
lition, ships  were  built  sharp  for  swiftness,  and  with  a 
frightful  disregard  of  the  comfort  of  the  victims  they 
were  destined  to  transport.  They  carried  five,  six,  even 
seven  hundred  stowed  in  a  ship  built  so  narrow  as  to  be 
unsafe,  being  made  just  broad  enough  on  the  beam  to 
keep  the  sea.  In  attempting  to  make  its  escape  from 
the  pursuit  of  a  man-of-war,  one  ship  flung  five  hundred 
slaves  alive  into  the  sea.  These  facts  went  into  Par- 
liament. In  the  islands  was  an  ominous  state  of  cruel 
and  licentious  society  ;  every  house  had  a  dungeon 
attached  to  it ;  every  slave  was  worked  by  the  whip. 
There  is  no  end  to  the  tragic  anecdotes  in  the  munic- 
ipal records  of  the  colonies.  The  boy  was  set  to  strip 
and  flog  his  own  mother  to  blood,  for  a  small  offence. 
Looking  in  the  face  of  his  master  by  the  negro  was  held 
to  be  violence  by  the  island  courts.  He  was  worked 
sixteen  hours,  and  his  ration  by  law,  in  some  islands, 
was  a  pint  of  flour  and  one  salt  herring  a  day.  He  suf- 
fered insult,  stripes,  mutilation,  at  the  humor  of  the 
master  :  iron  collars  were  riveted  on  their  necks  with 


118  ADDRESS. 

iron  prongs  ten  inches  long  ;  capsicum  pepper  was  rub- 
bed iu  the  eyes  of  the  females  ;  and  they  were  done  to 
death  with  the  most  shocking  levity  between  the  master 
and  manager,  without  fine  or  inquiry.  And  when,  al 
last,  some  Quakers,  Moravians,  and  Wesleyan  and  Bap- 
tist missionaries,  following  in  the  steps  of  Carey  and 
Ward  in  the  East  Indies,  had  been  moved  to  come  and 
cheer  the  poor  victim  with  the  hope  of  some  reparation, 
in  a  future  world,  of  the  wrongs  he  suffered  in  this, 
these  missionaries  were  persecuted  by  the  planters,  their 
lives  threatened,  their  chapels  burned,  and  the  negroes 
furiously  forbidden  to  go  near  them.  These  outrages 
rekindled  the  flame  of  British  indignation.  Petitions 
poured  into  Parliament  :  a  million  persons  signed  their 
names  to  these  ;  and  in  1833,  on  the  14th  May,  Lord 
Stanley,  minister  of  the  colonies,  introduced  into  the 
House  of  Commons  his  bill  for  the  Emancipation. 

The  scheme  of  the  minister,  with  such  modifica- 
tion as  it  received  in  the  legislature,  proposed  gradual 
emancipation;  that,  on  1st  August,  183 1,  all  persons 
now  slaves  should  be  entitled  to  be  registered  as  ap- 
prenticed laborers,  and  to  acquire  thereby  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  freemen,  subject  to  the  restriction 
of  laboring  under  certain  con  litions.  These  conditions 
were,  that  the  pro  dials  should  owe  throe  fourths  of  the 
profits  of  their  labor  to  their  masters  for  six  years,  and 
the  non-prsedials  for  four  years.  The  other  fourth  of 
the  apprentice's  tinio  was  to  be  his  own,  which  he  might 
sell  to  his  master,  or  to  other  persons;  and  at  the  end 
of  the  term  of  years  fixed,  he  should  be  free. 

With  these  provisions  and  comlr.ions,  the  bill  pro- 
ceeds, in  the  twelfth  section,  in  the  following  terms: 
"  Be  it  enacted,  that  all  and  every  person  who,  on  tho 


WEST   INDIA  EMANCIPATION.  119 

1st  August,  1834,  shall  be  holden  in  slavery  within  any 
such  British  colony  as  aforesaid,  shall  upon  and  from 
and  after  the  said  1st  August,  become  and  be  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  free,  and  discharged  of  and  from  all 
manner  of  slavery,  and  shall  bo  absolutely  and  forever 
manumitted;  and  that  the  children  thereafter  born  to 
any  such  persons,  and  the  offspring  of  such  children, 
shall,  in  like  manner,  be  free,  from  their  birth  ;  and 
that  from  and  after  the  1st  August,  1834,  slavery  shall 
be  and  is  hereby  utterly  and  forever  abolished  and  de- 
clared unlawful  throughout  the  British  colonies,  planta- 
tions, and  possessions  abroad." 

The  ministers,  having  estimated  the  slave  products  of 
the  colonies  in  annual  exports  of  sugar,  rum  and  coffee, 
at  £1,500,000  per  annum,  estimated  the  total  value  of 
the  slave-property  at  30,000,000  pounds  sterling,  and 
proposed  to  give  the  planters,  as  a  compensation  for  so 
much  of  the  slaves'  time  as  the  act  took  from  them, 
20,000,000  pounds  sterling,  to  be  divided  into  nineteen 
shares  for  the  nineteen  colonies,  and  to  be  distributed 
to  the  owners  of  slaves  by  commissioners,  whose  ap- 
pointment and  duties  were  regulated  by  the  Act.  After 
much  debate,  the  bill  passed  by  large  majorities.  The 
apprenticeship  system  is  understood  to  have  proceeded 
from  Lord  Brougham,  and  was  by  him  urged  on  his 
colleagues,  who,  it  is  said,  were  inclined  to  the  policy  of 
immediate  emancipation. 

The  colonial  legislatures  received  the  act  of  Par- 
liament with  various  degrees  of  displeasure,  and,  of 
course,  every  provision  of  the  bill  was  criticised  with 
severity.  The  new  relation  between  the  master  and 
the  apprentice,  it  was  feared,  would  be  mischievous; 
for  the  bill  required  the  appointment  of  magistrates 


120  ADDRESS. 

who  should  hear  every  complaint  of  the  apprentice  and 
see  that  justice  was  done  him.  It  was  feared  that  the 
interest  of  the  master  and  servant  would  now  produce 
perpetual  discord  between  them.  In  the  island  of  An- 
tigua, containing  37,000  people,  30,000  being  negroes, 
these  objections  had  such  weight,  that  the  legislature 
rejected  the  apprenticeship  system,  and  adopted  abso- 
lute emancipation.  In  the  other  islands  the  system  of 
the  ministry  was  accepted. 

The  reception  of  it  by  the  negro  population  was  equal 
in  nobleness  to  the  deed.  The  negroes  were  called 
together  by  the  missionaries  and  by  the  planters,  and 
the  news  explained  to  them.  On  the  night  of  the  31st 
July,  they  met  everywhere  at  their  churches  and  chap- 
els, and  at  midnight,  when  the  clock  struck  twelve,  on 
their  knees,  the  silent,  weeping  assembly  became  men; 
they  rose  and  embraced  each  other;  they  cried,  they 
sung,  they  prayed,  they  were  wild  with  joy,  but  there 
was  no  riot,  no  feasting.  I  have  never  read  anything 
in  history  more  touching  than  the  moderation  of  the 
negroes.  Some  American  captains  left  the  shore  and 
put  to  sea,  anticipating  insurrection  and  general  murder. 
With  far  different  thoughts,  the  negroes  spent  the  hour 
in  their  lints  and  chapels.  I  will  not  repeat  to  voti  the 
well-known  paragraph,  in  which  Messrs.  Thome  and 
Kimball,  the  commissioners  sent  out  in  the  year  1837 
by  the  American  Anti-slavery  Society,  describe  the  oc- 
currences of  that  night  in  the  island  of  Antigua.  Ifc 
has  been  quoted  in  every  newspaper,  and  Dr.  Channing 
has  given  it  additional  fame.  But  I  must  be  indulged 
iii  quoting  a  few  sentences  from  the  pages  that  follow 
it,  narrating  the  behavior  of  the  emancipated  people  ca 
the  next  day. 


WEST    INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  121 

"  The  first  of  August  came  on  Friday,  and  a  release 
was  proclaimed  from  all  work  until  the  next  Monday. 
The  day  was  chiefly  spent  by  the  great  mass  of  the 
negroes  in  the  churches  and  chapels.  The  clergy  and 
missionaries  throughout  the  island  were  actively  en- 
gaged, seizing  the  opportunity  to  enlighten  the  people 
on  all  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  their  new  rela- 
tion, and  urging  them  to  the  attainment  of  that  higher 
liberty  with  which  Christ  maketh  his  children  free.  In 
every  quarter,  we  were  assured,  the  day  was  like  a  Sab- 
bath. Work  had  ceased.  The  hum  of  business  was 
still :  tranquillity  pervaded  the  towns  and  country.  The 
planters  informed  us,  that  they  went  to  the  chapels 
where  their  own  people  were  assembled,  greeted  them, 
shook  hands  with  them,  and  exchanged  the  most  hearty 
good  wishes.  At  Grace  Hill,  there  were  at  least  a  thou- 
sand persons  around  the  Moravian  Chapel  who  could  not 
get  in.  For  once  the  house  of  God  suffered  violence, 
and  the  violent  took  it  by  force.  At  Grace  Bay,  the 
people,  all  dressed  in  white,  formed  a  procession,  and 
walked  arm  in  arm  into  the  chapel.  We  were  told  that 
the  dress  of  the  negroes  on  that  occasion  was  uncom- 
monly simple  and  modest.  There  was  not  the  least  dis- 
position to  gayety.  Throughout  the  island,  there  was 
not  a  single  dance  known  of,  either  day  or  night,  nor  so 
much  as  a  fiddle  played."  l 

On  the  next  Monday  morning,  with  very  few  excep- 
tions, every  negro  on  every  plantation  was  in  the  field 
at  his  work.  In  some  places,  they  waited  to  see  their 
master,  to  know  what  bargain  he  would  make  ;  but,  for 

i  Emancipation  in  the  West  Indies :  A  Six  Months'  Tour  in  Antigua, 
Barbadoes,  and  Jamaica,  in  the  year  1837.  By  J.  A.  Thome  and  J.  H. 
Kimball.  New  York,  1838.  Pp.  140,  147. 


122  ADDRESS. 

the  most  part,  throughout  the  islands,  nothing  painful 
occurred.  In  June,  1835,  the  ministers,  Lord  Aberdeen 
and  Sir  George  Grey,  declared  to  the  Parliament  that 
the  system  worked  well ;  that  now  for  ten  months, 
from  1st  August,  1834,  no  injury  or  violence  had  been 
offered  to  any  white,  and  only  one  black  had  been  hurt 
in  800,000  negroes  :  and,  contrary  to  many  sinister  pre- 
dictions, that  the  new  crop  of  island  produce  would  not 
fall  short  of  that  of  the  last  year. 

But  the  habit  of  oppression  was  not  destroyed  by  a 
law  and  a  day  of  jubilee.  It  soon  appeared  in  all  the 
islands  that  the  planters  were  disposed  to  use  their  old 
privileges,  and  overwork  the  apprentices  ;  to  take  from 
them,  under  various  pretences,  their  fourth  part  of  their 
time  ;  and  to  exert  the  same  licentious  despotism  as 
before.  The  negroes  complained  to  the  magistrates 
and  to  the  governor.  In  the  island  of  Jamaica,  this  ill 
blood  continually  grew  worse.  The  governors,  Lord 
Belmore,  the  Earl  of  Sligo,  and  afterwards  Sir  Lionel 
Smith  (a  governor  of  their  own  class,  who  had  been 
sent  out  to  gratify  the  planters),  threw  themselves  on 
the  side  of  the  oppressed,  and  were  at  constant  quarrel 
with  the  angry  and  bilious  island  legislature.  Nothing 
can  exceed  the  ill  humor  and  sulkiness  of  the  addresses 
of  this  assembly. 

I  may  here  express  a  general  remark,  which  the  his- 
tory of  slavery  seems  to  justify,  that  it  is  not  founded 
solely  on  the  avarice  of  the  planter.  We  sometimes 
say,  the  planter  does  not  want  slaves,  he  only  wants  the 
immunities  and  the  luxuries  which  the  slaves  yield  him  ; 
give  him  money,  give  him  a  machine  that  will  yield 
him  as  much  money  as  the  slaves,  and  he  will  thank- 
fully let  them  go.  He  has  no  love  of  slavery,  he  wants 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  123 

luxury,  and  he  will  pay  even  this  price  of  crime  and 
danger  for  it.  But  I  think  experience  does  not  warrant 
this  favorable  distinction,  but  shows  the  existence,  be- 
side the  covetousness  of  a  bitterer  element,  the  love  of 
power,  the  voluptuousness  of  holding  a  human  being 
in  his  absolute  control.  We  sometimes  observe  that 
spoiled  children  contract  a  habit  of  annoying  quite 
wantonly  those  who  have  charge  of  them,  and  seem  to 
measure  their  own  sense  of  well-being,  not  by  what  they 
do,  but  by  the  degree  of  reaction  they  can  cause.  It  is 
vain  to  get  rid  of  them  by  not  minding  them  :  if  pur- 
ring and  humming  is  not  noticed,  they  squeal  and 
screech  ;  then  if  you  chide  and  console  them,  they  find 
the  experiment  succeeds,  and  they  begin  again.  The 
child  will  sit  in  your  arms  contented,  provided  you  do 
nothing.  If  you  take  a  book  and  read,  he  commences 
hostile  operations.  The  planter  is  the  spoiled  child  of 
his  unnatural  habits,  and  has  contracted  in  his  indolent 
and  luxurious  climate  the  need  of  excitement  by  irri- 
tating and  tormenting  his  slave. 

Sir  Lionel  Smith  defended  the  poor  negro  girls,  prey 
to  the  licentiousness  of  the  planters  ;  they  shall  not  be 
whipped  with  tamarind  rods  if  they  do  not  comply  with 
their  master's  will  ;  he  defended  the  negro  women  ; 
they  should  not  be  made  to  dig  the  cane  holes  (which 
is  the  very  hardest  of  the  field-work);  he  defended 
the  Baptist  preachers  and  the  stipendiary  magistrates, 
who  are  the  negroes'  friends,  from  the  power  of  the 
planter.  The  power  of  the  planters  however,  to  op- 
press, was  greater  than  the  power  of  the  apprentice  and 
of  his  guardians  to  withstand.  Lord  Brougham  and 
Mr.  Buxton  declared  that  the  planter  had  not  fulfilled 
his  part  in  the  contract,  whilst  the  apprentices  had 


124  ADDRESS. 

fulfilled  theirs  ;  and  demanded  that  the  emancipation 
should  be  hastened,  and  the  apprenticeship  abolished. 
Parliament  was  compelled  to  pass  additional  laws  for 
the  defence  and  security  of  the  negro,  and  in  ill  hu- 
mor at  these  acts,  the  great  island  of  Jamaica,  with 
a  population  of  half  a  million,  and  300,000  negroes, 
early  in  1838,  resolved  to  throw  up  the  two  remaining 
years  of  apprenticeship,  and  to  emancipate  absolutely 
on  the  1st  August,  1838.  In  British  Guiana,  in  Do- 
minica, the  same  resolution  had  been  earlier  taken  with 
more  good  will  ;  and  the  other  islands  fell  into  the 
measure  ;  so  that  on  the  1st  August,  1838,  the  shackles 
dropped  from  every  British  slave.  The  accounts  which 
we  have  from  all  parties,  both  from  the  planters  (and 
those  too  who  were  originally  most  opposed  to  the  meas- 
ure), and  from  the  new  freemen,  are  of  the  most  satis- 
factory kind.  The  manner  in  which  the  new  festival 
was  celebrated,  brings  tears  to  the  eyes.  The  first  of 
August,  1838,  was  observed  in  Jamaica  as  a  day  of 
thanksgiving  and  prayer.  Sir  Lionel  Smith,  the  gov- 
ernor, writes  to  the  British  Ministry,  "  It  is  impossible 
for  me  to  do  justice  to  the  good  order,  decorum  and 
gratitude  which  the  whole  laboring  population  mani- 
fested on  that  happy  occasion.  Though  joy  beamed  on 
every  countenance,  it  was  throughout  tempered  with 
solemn  thankfulness  to  God,  and  the  churches  and 
chapels  were  everywhere  filled  with  these  happy  people 
in  humble  offering  of  praise." 

The  Queen,  in  her  speech  to  the  Lords  and  Com- 
mons, praised  the  conduct  of  the  emancipated  popula- 
tion :  and  in  1840  Sir  Charles  Metcalfe,  the  new  gov- 
ernor of  Jamaica,  in  his  address  to  the  Assembly  ex- 
pressed himself  to  that  late  exasperated  body  in  these 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  125 

terms  :  "  All  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  state 
of  the  island  know  that  our  emancipated  population 
are  as  free,  as  independent  in  their  conduct,  as  well- 
conditioned,  as  much  in  the  enjoyment  of  abundance,  and 
as  strongly  sensible  of  the  blessings  of  liberty,  as  any 
that  we  know  of  in  any  country.  All  disqualifications 
and  distinctions  of  color  have  ceased  ;  men  of  all  col- 
ors have  equal  rights  in  law,  and  an  equal  footing  in 
society,  and  every  man's  position  is  settled  by  the  same 
circumstances  which  regulate  that  point  in  other  free 
countries,  where  no  difference  of  color  exists.  It  may 
be  asserted,  without  fear  of  denial,  that  the  former 
slaves  of  Jamaica  are  now  as  secure  in  all  social  rights, 
<\s  freeborn  Britons."  He  further  describes  the  erec- 
tion of  numerous  churches,  chapels  and  schools  which 
the  new  population  required,  and  adds  that  more  are 
still  demanded.  The  legislature,  in  their  reply,  echo 
the  governor's  statement,  and  say,  "  The  peaceful  de- 
meanor of  the  emancipated  population  redounds  to 
their  own  credit,  and  affords  a  proof  of  their  continued 
comfort  and  prosperity." 

I  said,  this  event  is  signal  in  the  history  of  civiliza- 
tion. There  are  many  styles  of  civilization,  and  not 
one  only.  Ours  is  full  of  barbarities.  There  are  many 
faculties  in  man,  each  of  which  takes  its  turn  of  activ- 
ity, and  that  faculty  which  is  paramount  in  any  period 
and  exerts  itself  through  the  strongest  nation,  deter- 
mines the  civility  of  that  age  :  and  each  age  thinks  its 
own  the  perfection  of  reason.  Our  culture  is  very 
cheap  and  intelligible.  Unroof  any  house,  and  you 
shall  find  it.  The  well-being  consists  in  having  a  suf- 
ficiency of  coffee  and  toast,  with  a  daily  newspaper  ;  a 
well  glazed  parlor,  with  marbles,  mirrors  and  centre- 


126  ADDRESS. 

table  ;  and  the  excitement  of  a  few  parties  and  a  few 
rides  in  a  year.  Such  as  one  house,  such  are  all.  The 
owner  of  a  New  York  manor  imitates  the  mansion  and 
equipage  of  the  London  nobleman  ;  the  Boston  mer- 
chant rivals  his  brother  of  New  York  ;  and  the  villages 
copy  Boston.  There  have  been  nations  elevated  by 
great  sentiments.  Such  was  the  civility  of  Sparta  and 
the  Dorian  race,  whilst  it  was  defective  in  some  of  the 
chief  elements  of  ours.  That  of  Athens,  again,  lay  in 
an  intellect  dedicated  to  beauty.  That  of  Asia  Minor 
in  poetry,  music  and  arts  ;  that  of  Palestine  in  piety  ; 
that  of  Rome  in  military  arts  and  virtues,  exalted  by  a 
prodigious  magnanimity  ;  that  of  China  and  Japan  in 
the  last  exaggeration  of  decorum  and  etiquette.  Our 
civility,  England  determines  the  style  of,  inasmuch  as 
England  is  the  strongest  of  the  family  of  existing  na- 
tions, and  as  we  are  the  expansion  of  that  people.  It  is 
that  of  a  trading  nation  ;  it  is  a  shopkeeping  civility. 
The  English  lord  is  a  retired  shopkeeper,  and  has  the 
prejudices  and  timidities  of  that  profession.  And  we 
are  shopkeepers,  and  have  acquired  the  vices  and  vir- 
tues that  belong  to  trade.  We  peddle,  we  truck,  we 
sail,  we  row,  we  ride  in  cars,  we  creep  in  teams,  we 
go  in  canals,  —  to  market,  and  for  the  sale  of  goods. 
The  national  aim  and  employment  streams  into  our 
ways  of  thinking,  our  laws,  our  habits  and  our  man- 
ners. The  customer  is  the  immediate  jewel  of  our 
souls.  Him  we  flatter,  him  we  feast,  compliment,  vote 
for,  and  will  not  contradict.  It  was  or  it  seemed  the 
dictate  of  trade,  to  keep  the  negro  down.  We  had 
found  a  race  who  were  less  warlike,  and  less  energetic 
shopkeepers  than  we  ;  who  had  very  little  skill  in  trade. 
We  found  it  very  convenient  to  keep  them  at  work, 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  127 

since,  by  the  aid  of  a  little  v/hipping,  we  could  get  their 
work  for  nothing  but  their  board  and  the  cost  of  whips. 
What  if  it  cost  a  few  unpleasant  scenes  on  tho  coast  of 
Africa  ?  That  was  a  great  way  off  ;  and  the  scenes 
could  be  endured  by  some  sturdy,  unscrupulous  fellows, 
who  could  go,  for  high  wages,  and  bring  us  the  men, 
and  need  not  trouble  our  ears  with  the  disagreeable 
particulars.  If  any  mention  was  made  of  homicide, 
madness,  adultery,  and  intolerable  tortures,  we  would 
let  the  church-bells  ring  louder,  the  church-organ  swell 
its  peal  and  drown  the  hideous  sound.  The  sugar  they 
raised  was  excellent  :  nobody  tasted  blood  in  it.  The 
coffee  was  fragrant  ;  the  tobacco  was  incense  ;  the 
brandy  made  nations  happy  ;  the  cotton  clothed  the 
world.  What  !  all  raised  by  these  men,  and  no  wages  ? 
Excellent  !  What  a  convenience  !  They  seemed  cre- 
ated by  Providence  to  bear  the  heat  and  the  whipping, 
and  make  these  fine  articles. 

But  unhappily,  most  unhappily,  gentlemen,  man  is 
born  with  intellect,  as  well  as  with  a  love  of  sugar  ;  and 
with  a  sense  of  justice,  as  well  as  a  taste  for  strong 
drink.  These  ripened,  as  well  as  those.  You  could 
not  educate  him,  you  could  not  get  any  poetry,  any 
wisdom,  any  beauty  in  woman,  any  strong  and  com- 
manding character  in  man,  but  these  absurdities  would 
still  come  flashing  out,  —  these  absurdities  of  a  demand 
for  justice,  a  generosity  for  the  weak  and  oppressed. 
Unhappily  too  for  the  planter,  the  laws  of  nature  are 
in  harmony  with  each  other  :  that  which  the  head  and 
the  heart  demand,  is  found  to  be,  in  the  long  run, 
for  what  the  grossest  calculator  calls  his  advantage. 
The  moral  sense  is  always  supported  by  the  permanent 
interest  of  the  parties.  Else,  I  know  not  how,  in  our 


128  ADDRESS. 

world,  any  good  would  ever  get  done.  It  was  shown 
to  the  planters  that  they,  as  well  as  the  negroes,  were 
slaves  ;  that  though  they  paid  no  wage?.,  they  got  very 
poor  work  ;  that  their  estates  were  ruining  them,  under 
the  finest  climate  ;  and  that  they  needed  the  severest 
monopoly  laws  at  home  to  keep  them  from  bankruptcy. 
The  oppression  of  the  slave  recoiled  on  them.  They 
were  full  of  vices  ;  their  children  were  lumps  of  pride, 
sloth,  sensuality  and  rottenness.  The  position  of  woman 
was  nearly  as  had  as  it  could  be  ;  and,  like  other  rob- 
bers, they  could  not  sleep  in  security.  Many  planters 
have  said,  since  the  emancipation,  thnt,  before  that  day, 
they  were  the  greatest  slaves  on  the  estates.  Slavery 
is  no  scholar,  no  improver  ;  it  does  not  love  the  whistle 
of  the  railroad  ;  it  does  not  love  the  newspaper,  the 
mailbag,  a  college,  a  book  or  a  preacher  who  has  the 
absurd  whim  of  saying  what  he  thinks  ;  it  does  not  in- 
crease the  white  population  ;  it  does  not  improve  the 
soil  ;  everything  goes  to  decay.  For  these  reasons  the 
islands  proved  bad  customers  to  England.  It  was  very 
easy  for  manufacturers  less  shrewd  than  those  of  Bir- 
mingham and  Manchester  to  see  that  if  the  state  of 
things  in  the  islands  was  altered,  if  the  slaves  had 
wages,  the  slaves  would  be  clothed,  would  build  houses, 
would  fill  them  with  tools,  with  pottery,  with  crockery, 
with  hardware  ;  and  negro  women  love  fine  clothes  as 
well  as  white  women.  In  every  naked  negro  of  those 
thousands,  they  saw  a  future  customer.  Meantime, 
they  saw  further  that  the  slave-trade,  by  keeping  in 
barbarism  the  whole  coast  of  eastern  Africa,  deprives 
them  of  countries  and  nations  of  customers,  if  once  free- 
dom and  civility  and  European  manners  could  get  a 
foothold  there.  But  the  trade  could  not  be  abolished 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  129 

whilst  this  hungry  West  Indian  market,  with  an  appe- 
tite like  the  grave,  cried,  "More,  more,  bring  me  a 
hundred  a  day ;  they  could  not  expect  any  mitigation 
in  the  madness  of  the  poor  African  war-chiefs.  These 
considerations  opened  the  eyes  of  the  dullest  in  Britain. 
More  than  this,  the  West  Indian  estate  was  owned  or 
mortgaged  in  England,  and  the  owner  and  the  mort- 
gagee had  very  plain  intimations  that  the  feeling  of 
English  liberty  was  gaining  every  hour  new  mass  and 
velocity,  and  the  hostility  to  such  as  resisted  it  would 
be  fatal.  The  House  of  Commons  would  destroy  the 
protection  of  island  produce,  and  interfere  in  English 
politics  in  the  island  legislation  :  so  they  hastened  to 
make  the  best  of  their  position,  and  accepted  the  bill. 

These  considerations,  I  doubt  not,  had  their  weight  ; 
the  interest  of  trade,  the  interest  of  the  revenue,  and, 
moreover,  the  good  fame  of  the  action.  It  was  inevita- 
ble that  men  should  feel  these  motives.  But  they  do 
not  appear  to  have  had  an  excessive  or  unreasonable 
weight.  On  reviewing  this  history,  I  think  the  whole 
transaction  reflects  infinite  honor  on  the  people  and  Par- 
liament of  England.  It  was  a  stately  spectacle,  to  see 
the  cause  of  human  rights  argued  with  so  much  patience 
and  generosity  and  with  such  a  mass  of  evidence  before 
that  powerful  people.  It  is  a  creditable  incident  in  the 
history  that  when,  in  1789,  the  first  privy-council  report 
of  evidence  on  the  trade  (a  bulky  folio  embodying  all 
the  facts  which  the  London  Committee  had  been  en- 
gaged for  years  in  collecting,  and  all  the  examinations 
before  the  council)  was  presented  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, a  late  day  being  named  for  the  discussion,  in 
order  to  give  members  time,  —  Mr.  Wilberforce,  Mr. 
Pitt,  the  prime  minister,  and  other  gentlemen,  took  ad- 


130  ADDRESS. 

vantage  of  the  postponement  to  retire  into  the  country 
to  read  the  report.  For  months  and  years  the  bill  was 
debated,  with  some  consciousness  of  the  extent  of  its  re- 
lations, by  the  first  citizens  of  England,  the  foremost 
men  of  the  earth  ;  every  argument  was  weighed,  every 
particle  of  evidence  was  sifted  and  laid  in  the  scale  ; 
and,  at  last,  the  right  triumphed,  the  poor  man  was  vin- 
dicated, and  the  oppressor  was  flung  out.  I  know  that 
England  has  the  advantage  of  trying  the  question  at  a 
wide  distance  from  the  spot  where  the  nuisance  exists  : 
the  planters  are  not,  excepting  in  rare  examples,  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature.  The  extent  of  the  empire,  and 
the  magnitude  and  number  of  other  questions  crowding 
into  court,  keep  this  one  in  balance,  and  prevent  it  from 
obtaining  that  ascendency,  and  being  urged  with  that 
intemperance  which  a  question  of  property  tends  to  ac- 
quire. There  are  causes  in  the  composition  of  the  Brit- 
ish legislature,  and  the  relation  of  its  leaders  to  the 
country  and  to  Europe,  which  exclude  much  that  is  piti- 
ful and  injurious  in  other  legislative  assemblies.  From 
these  reasons,  the  question  was  discussed  with  a  rare 
independence  and  magnanimity.  It  was  not  narrowed 
down  to  a  paltry  electioneering  trap  ;  and,  I  must  say, 
a  delight  in  justice,  an  honest  tenderness  for  the  poor 
negro,  for  man  suffering  these  wrongs,  combined  with 
the  national  pride,  which  refused  to  give  the  support  of 
English  soil  or  the  protection  of  the  English  flag  to 
these  disgusting  violations  of  nature. 

Forgive  me,  fellow-citizens,  if  I  own  to  you,  that  in 
the  last  few  days  that  my  attention  has  been  occupied 
with  this  history,  I  have  not  been  able  to  read  a  page 
of  it  without  the  most  painful  comparisons.  Whilst  I 
have  read  of  England,  I  have  thought  of  New  England. 


WEST   INDIA    EMANCIPATION.  131 

Whilst  I  have  meditated  in  my  solitary  walks  on  the 
magnanimity  of  the  English  Bench  and  Senate,  reaching 
out  the  benefit  of  the  law  to  the  most  helpless  citizen  in 
her  world-wide  realm,  I  have  found  myself  oppressed 
by  other  thoughts.  As  I  have  walked  in  the  pastures 
and  along  the  edge  of  woods,  I  could  not  keep  my  im- 
agination on  those  agreeable  figures,  for  other  images 
that  intruded  on  me.  I  could  not  see  the  great  vision  of 
"the  patriots  and  senators  who  have  adopted  the  skive's 
cause  :  —  they  turned  their  backs  on  me.  No  :  I  see 
other  pictures,  —  of  mean  men:  I  see  very  poor,  very 
ill-clothed,  very  ignorant  men,  not  surrounded  by  happy 
friends,  —  to  be  plain,  —  poor  black  men  of  obscure  em- 
ployment as  mariners,  cooks,  or  stewards,  in  ships,  yet 
citizens  of  this  our  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  — 
freeborn  as  we,  —  whom  the  slave-laws  of  the  States  of 
South  Carolina,  Georgia  and  Louisiana  have  arrested  in 
the  vessels  in  which  they  visited  those  ports,  and  shut 
up  in  jails  so  long  as  the  vessel  remained  in  port,  with 
the  stringent  addition,  that  if  the  shipmaster  fails  to 
pay  the  costs  of  this  official  arrest  and  the  board  in  jail, 
these  citizens  are  to  be  sold  for  slaves,  to  pay  that  ex- 
pense. This  man,  these  men,  I  sec,  and  no  law  to  save 
them.  Fellow-citizens,  this  crime  will  not  be  hushed 
up  any  longer.  I  have  learned  that  a  citizen  of  Nan- 
tucket,  walking  in  New  Orleans,  found  a  freeborn  citi- 
zen of  Nantucket,  a  man,  too,  of  great  personal  worth, 
and,  as  it  happened,  very  dear  to  him,  as  having  saved 
his  own  life,  working  chained  in  the  streets  of  that  city, 
kidnapped  by  such  a  process  as  this.  In  the  sleep  of 
the  laws,  the  private  interference  of  two  excellent  citi- 
zens of  Boston  has,  I  have  ascertained,  rescued  several 
natives  of  this  State  from  these  Southern  prisons.  Gen.- 


132  ADDRESS. 

tlemen,  I  thought  the  deck  of  a  Massachusetts  ship  was 
as  much  the  territory  of  Massachusetts  as  the  floor  on 
which  we  stand.  It  should  he  as  sacred  as  the  temple 
of  God.  The  poorest  fishing  smack  that  floats  under 
the  shadow  of  an  iceherg  in  the  Northern  seas,  or  hunts 
the  whale  in  the  Southern  ocean,  should  be  encompassed 
by  her  laws  with  comfort  and  protection,  as  much  as 
within  the  arms  of  Cape  Ann  and  Cape  Cod.  And  this 
kidnapping  is  suffered  within  our  own  land  and  federa- 
tion, whilst  the  fourth  article  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  ordains  in  terms,  that,  "  The  citizens  of 
each  State  shall  he  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immu- 
nities of  citizens  in  the  several  States."  If  such  a  dam- 
nable outrage  can  be  committed  on  the  person  of  a  citi- 
zen with  impunitv,  let  the  Governor  break  the  broad 
seal  of  the  State;  he  bears  the  sword  in  vain.  The 
Governor  of  Massachusetts  is  a  trifler;  the  State-house 
in  Boston  is  a  play-house ;  the  General  Court  is  a  dis- 
honored body,  if  they  make  laws  which  they  cannot 
execute.  The  great-hearted  Puritans  have  left  no  pos- 
terity. The  rich  men  may  walk  in  State  Street,  but 
they  walk  without  honor;  and  the  farmers  may  brag 
their  democracy  in  the  country,  but  they  are  disgraced 
men.  If  the  State  has  no  power  to  defend  its  own  peo- 
ple in  its  own  shipping,  because  it  has  delegated  that 
power  to  the  Federal  Government,  has  it  no  representa- 
tion in  the  Federal  Government?  Are  those  men  dumb? 
I  am  no  lawyer,  and  cannot  indicate  the  forms  appli- 
cable to  the  case,  but  here  is  something  which  transcends 
all  forms.  Let  the  senators  and  representatives  of  the 
State,  containing  a  population  of  a  million  freemen,  go 
in  a  body  before  the  Congress  and  say  that  they  have  a 
demand  to  make  on  them,  so  imperative  that  all  func- 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  133 

tions  of  government  must  stop  until  it  is  satisfied.  If 
ordinary  legislation  cannot  reach  it,  then  extraordinary 
must  be  applied.  The  Congress  should  instruct  the 
President  to  send  to  those  ports  of  Charleston,  Savan- 
nah and  New  Orleans  such  orders  and  such  force  as 
should  release,  forthwith,  all  such  citizens  of  Massachu- 
setts as  were  holden  in  prison  without  the  allegation  of 
any  crime,  and  should  set  on  foot  the  strictest  inquisition 
to  discover  where  such  persons,  brought  into  slavery  by 
these  local  laws  at  any  time  heretofore,  may  now  be. 
That  first ;  —  and  then,  let  order  be  taken  to  indemnify 
all  such  as  have  been  incarcerated.  As  for  dangers  to 
the  Union,  from  such  demands !  —  the  Union  is  already 
at  an  end  when  the  first  citizen  of  Massachusetts  is  thus 
outraged.  Is  it  an  union  and  covenant  in  which  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  agrees  to  be  imprisoned,  and 
the  State  of  Carolina  to  imprison  ?  Gentlemen,  I  am 
loath  to  say  harsh  things,  and  perhaps  I  know  too  little 
of  politics  for  the  smallest  weight  to  attach  to  any  cen- 
sure of  mine,  —  but  I  am  at  a  loss  how  to  characterize 
the  tameness  and  silence  of  the  two  senators  and  the 
ten  representatives  of  the  State  at  Washington.  To 
what  purpose  have  we  clothed  each  of  those  representa- 
tives with  the  power  of  seventy  thousand  persons,  and 
each  senator  with  near  half  a  million,  if  they  are  to  sit 
dumb  at  their  desks  and  see  their  constituents  captured 
and  sold  ;  —  perhaps  to  gentlemen  sitting  by  them  in 
the  hall  ?  There  is  a  scandalous  rumor  that  has  been 
swelling  louder  of  late  years,  —  perhaps  it  is  wholly 
false,  —  that  members  are  bullied  into  silence  by  South- 
ern gentlemen.  It  is  so  easy  to  omit  to  speak,  or  even 
to  be  absent  when  delicate  things  are  to  be  handled.  I 
may  as  well  say  what  all  men  feel,  that  whilst  our  very 


134  ADDRESS. 

amiable  and  very  innocent  representatives  and  senators 
at  Washington  are  accomplished  lawyers  and  merchants, 
and  very  eloquent  at  dinners  and  at  caucuses,  there  is  a 
disastrous  want  of  men  from  New  England.  I  would 
gladly  make  exceptions,  and  you  will  not  suffer  me  to 
forget  one  eloquent  old  man,  in  whose  veins  the  blood  of 
Massachusetts  rolls,  and  who  singly  has  defended  the 
freedom  of  speech,  and  the  rights  of  the  free,  against  the 
usurpation  of  the  slave-holder.  But  the  reader  of  Con- 
gressional debates,  in  New  England,  is  perplexed  to  see 
with  what  admirable  sweetness  and  patience  the  ma- 
jority of  the  free  States  are  schooled  and  ridden  by  the 
minority  of  slave-holders.  What  if  we  should  send 
thither  representatives  who  were  a  particle  less  amiable 
and  less  innocent  ?  I  entreat  you,  sirs,  let  not  this  stain 
attach,  let  not  this  misery  accumulate  any  longer.  If 
the  managers  of  our  political  parties  are  too  prudent 
and  too  cold;  —  if,  most  unhappily,  the  ambitious  class 
of  young  men  and  political  men  have  found  out  that 
these  neglected  victims  are  poor  and  without  weight; 
that  they  have  no  graceful  hospitalities  to  offer;  no  val- 
uable business  to  throw  into  any  man's  hands,  no  strong 
vote  to  cast  at  the  elections;  and  therefore  may  with 
impunity  be  left  in  their  chains  or  to  the  chance  of 
chains,  —  then  let  the  citizens  in  their  primary  capacity 
take  up  their  cause  on  this  very  ground,  and  say  to  the 
government  of  the  State,  and  of  the  Union,  that  govern- 
ment exists  to  defend  the  weak  and  the  poor  and  the 
injured  party;  the  rich  and  the  strong  can  better  take 
care  of  themselves.  And  as  an  omen  and  assurance  of 
success,  I  point  you  to  the  bright  example  which  Eng- 
land set  you,  on  this  day,  ten  years  ago. 

There  are  other  comparisons  and  other  imperative 


WEST    INDIA    EMANCIPATION.  135 

duties  which  come  sadly  to  mind,  —  but  I  do  not  wish 
to  darken  the  hours  of  this  day  by  crimination  ;  I  turn 
gladly  to  the  rightful  theme,  to  the  bright  aspects  of 
the  occasion. 

This  event  was  a  moral  revolution.  The  history  of  it 
is  before  you.  Here  was  no  prodigy,  no  fabulous  hero, 
no  Trojan  horse,  no  bloody  war,  but  all  was  achieved  by 
plain  means  of  plain  men,  working  not  under  a  leader, 
but  under  a  sentiment.  Other  revolutions  have  been 
the  insurrection  of  the  oppressed  ;  this  was  the  repent- 
ance of  the  tyrant.  It  was  the  masters  revolting  from 
their  mastery.  The  slave-holder  said,  I  will  not  hold 
slaves.  The  end  was  noble  and  the  means  were  pure. 
Hence  the  elevation  and  pathos  of  this  chapter  of  his- 
tory. The  lives  of  the  advocates  are  pages  of  great- 
ness, and  the  connection  of  the  eminent  senators  with 
this  question  constitutes  the  immortalizing  moments  of 
those  men's  lives.  The  bare  enunciation  of  the  theses 
at  which  the  lawyers  and  legislators  arrived,  gives  a 
glow  to  the  heart  of  the  reader.  Lord  Chancellor  North- 
iugton  is  the  author  of  the  famous  sentence,  "  As  soon 
as  any  man  puts  his  foot  on  English  ground,  he  becomes 
free."  "  I  was  a  slave,"  said  the  counsel  of  Somerset, 
speaking  for  his  client,  "  for  I  was  in  America  :  I  am. 
now  in  a  country  where  the  common  rights  of  mankind 
are  known  and  regarded."  Granville  Sharpe  filled  the 
ear  of  the  judges  with  the  sound  principles  that  had 
from  time  to  time  been  affirmed  by  the  legal  authori- 
ties :  "  Derived  power  cannot  be  superior  to  the  power 
from  which  it  is  derived  :  "  "  The  reasonableness  of 
the  law  is  the  soul  of  the  law  :  "  "  It  is  better  to  suf- 
fer every  evil,  than  to  consent  to  any."  Out  it  would 
come,  the  God's  truth,  out  it  came,  like  a  bolt  from  a 


136  ADDRESS. 

cloud,  for  all  the  mumbling  of  the  lawyers.  One  feels 
very  sensibly  in  all  this  history  that  a  great  heart  and 
soul  are  behind  there,  superior  to  any  man,  and  making 
use  of  each,  in  turn,  and  infinitely  attractive  to  every 
person  according  to  the  degree  of  reason  in  his  own 
mind,  so  that  this  cause  has  had  the  power  to  draw  to 
it  every  particle  of  talent  and  of  worth  in  England, 
from  the  beginning.  All  the  great  geniuses  of  the  Brit- 
ish senate,  Fox,  Pitt,  Burke,  Grenville,  Sheridan,  Grey, 
Canning,  ranged  themselves  on  its  side  ;  the  poet  Cow- 
per  wrote  for  it  :  Franklin,  Jefferson,  Washington,  in 
this  country,  all  recorded  their  votes.  All  men  remem- 
ber the  subtlety  and  the  fire  of  indignation  which  the 
"  Fdinburgh  Review  "  contributed  to  the  cause  ;  and 
every  liberal  mind,  poet,  preacher,  moralist,  statesman, 
has  had  the  fortune  to  appear  somewhere  for  this  cause. 
On  the  other  part,  appeared  the  reign  of  pounds  and 
shillings,  and  all  manner  of  rage  and  stupidity;  a  resist- 
ance which  drew  from  Mr.  Huddlestone  in  Parliament 
the  observation,  "  That  a  curse  attended  this  trade  even 
in  the  mode  of  defending  it.  By  a  certain  fatality, 
none  but  the  vilest  arguments  were  brought  forward, 
which  corrupted  the  very  persons  who  used  them.  Ev- 
ery one  of  these  was  built  on  the  narrow  ground  of  in- 
terest, of  pecuniary  profit,  of  sordid  gain,  in  opposition 
to  every  motive  that  had  reference  to  humanity,  justice 
and  religion,  or  to  that  great  principle  which  compre- 
hended them  all."  This  moral  force  perpetually  rein- 
forces and  dignifies  the  friends  of  this  cause.  It  gave 
that  tenacity  to  their  point  which  has  insured  ultimate 
triumph  ;  and  it  gave  that  superiority  in  reason,  in  im- 
agery, in  eloquence,  which  makes  in  all  countries  anti- 
slavery  meetings  so  attractive  to  the  people,  and  has 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  137 

made  it  a  proverb  in  Massachusetts,  that  "  eloquence  is 
dog-cheap  at  the  anti-slavery  chapel." 

I  will  say  further  that  we  are  indebted  mainly  to  this 
movement  and  to  the  continuers  of  it,  for  the  popular 
discussion  of  every  point  of  practical  ethics,  and  a  ref- 
erence of  every  question  to  the  absolute  standard.  It  is 
notorious  that  the  political,  religious  and  social  schemes, 
with  which  the  minds  of  men  are  now  most  occupied, 
have  been  matured,  or  at  least  broached,  in  the  free 
and  daring  discussions  of  these  assemblies.  Men  have 
become  aware,  through  the  emancipation  and  kindred 
events,  of  the  presence  of  powers  which,  in  their  days 
of  darkness,  they  had  overlooked.  Virtuous  men  will 
not  again  rely  on  political  agents.  They  have  found 
out  the  deleterious  effect  of  political  association.  Up 
to  this  day  we  have  allowed  to  statesmen  a  paramount 
social  standing,  and  we  bow  low  to  them  as  to  the  great. 
We  cannot  extend  this  deference  to  them  any  longer. 
The  secret  cannot  be  kept,  that  the  seats  of  power  are 
filled  by  underlings,  ignorant,  timid  and  seltish  to  a  de- 
gree to  destroy  all  claim,  excepting  that  on  compassion, 
to  the  society  of  the  just  and  generous.  What  hap- 
pened notoriously  to  an  American  ambassador  in  Eng- 
land, that  he  found  himself  compelled  to  palter  and  to 
disguise  the  fact  that  he  was  a  slave-breeder,  happens  to 
men  of  state.  Their  vocation  is  a  presumption  against 
them  among  well-meaning  people.  The  superstition  re- 
specting power  and  office  is  going  to  the  ground.  The 
stream  of  human  affairs  flows  its  own  way,  and  is  very 
little  affected  by  the  activity  of  legislators.  What  great 
masses  of  men  wish  done,  will  be  done  ;  and  they  do  not 
wish  it  for  a  freak,  but  because  it  is  their  state  and  nat- 
ural end.  There  are  now  other  energies  than  force, 


138  ADDRESS. 

other  than  political,  which  no  man  in  future  can  allow 
himself  to  disregard.  There  is  direct  conversation  and 
influence.  A  man  is  to  make  himself  felt  by  his  proper 
force.  The  tendency  of  things  runs  steadily  to  tliis 
point,  namely,  to  put  every  man  on  his  merits,  and  to 
give  him  so  much  power  as  he  naturally  exerts,  —  no 
more,  no  less.  Of  course,  the  timid  and  base  persons, 
all  who  are  conscious  of  no  worth  in  themselves,  and 
who  one  all  their  place  to  the  opportunities  which  the 
old  order  of  things  allowed  them,  to  deceive  and  de- 
fraud men,  shudder  at  the  change,  and  would  fain  si- 
lence every  honest  voice,  and  lock  up  every  house  where 
liberty  and  innovation  can  be  pleaded  for.  They  would 
raise  mobs,  for  fear  is  very  cruel.  But  the  strong  and 
healthy  yeomen  and  husbands  of  the  land,  the  self-sus- 
taining class  of  inventive  and  industrious  men,  fear  no 
competition  or  superiority.  Come  what  will,  their  fac- 
ulty cannot  be  spared. 

The  first  of  August  marks  the  entrance  of  a  new 
element  into  modern  politics,  namely,  the  civilization  of 
the  negro.  A  man  is  added  to  the  human  family.  Not 
the  least  affecting  part  of  this  history  of  abolition  is  the 
annihilation  of  the  old  indecent  nonsense  about  the  na- 
ture of  the  negro.  In  the  case  of  the  ship  Zong,  in 
1781,  whose  master  had  thrown  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
two  slaves  alive  into  the  sea,  to  cheat  the  underwriters, 
the  first  jury  gave  a  verdict  in  favor  of  the  master  and 
owners  :  they  had  a  right  to  do  what  they  had  done. 
Lord  Mansfield  is  reported  to  have  said  on  the  bench, 
"  The  matter  left  to  the  jury  is,  —  Was  it  from  ne- 
cessity ?  For  they  had  no  doubt,  —  though  it  shocks 
one  very  much,  —  that  the  case  of  slaves  was  the  same 
as  if  horses  had  been  thrown  overboard.  It  is  a  verv 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  139 

shocking1  case."  But  a  more  enlightened  and  humane 
opinion  began  to  prevail.  Mr.  Clarkson,  early  in  his 
career,  made  a  collection  of  African  productions  and 
manufactures,  as  specimens  of  the  arts  and  culture  of 
the  negro  ;  comprising  cloths  and  loom,  weapons,  pol- 
ished stones  and  woods,  leather,  glass,  dyes,  ornaments, 
soap,  pipe-bowls  and  trinkets.  These  he  showed  to  Mr. 
Pitt,  who  saw  and  handled  them  with  extreme  interest. 
"  On  sight  of  these,"  says  Clarkson,  "  many  sublime 
thoughts  seemed  to  rush  at  once  into  his  mind,  some  of 
which  he  expressed  ;  "  and  hence  appeared  to  arise  a 
project  which  was  always  dear  to  him,  of  the  civiliza- 
tion of  Africa,  —  a  dream  which  forever  elevates  his 
fame.  In  1791,  Mr.  Wilberforce  announced  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  "  We  have  already  gained  one  vic- 
tory :  we  have  obtained  for  these  poor  creatures  the 
recognition  of  their  human  nature,  which  for  a  time  was 
most  shamefully  denied  them."  It  was  the  sarcasm  of 
Montesquieu,  "  it  would  not  do  to  suppose  that  negroes 
were  men,  lest  it  should  turn  out  that  whites  were  not  ; " 
for  the  white  has,  for  ages,  done  what  he  could  to  keep 
the  negro  in  that  hoggish  state.  His  laws  have  been 
furies.  It  now  appears  that  the  negro  race  is,  more 
than  any  other,  susceptible  of  rapid  civilization.  The 
emancipation  is  observed,  in  the  islands,  to  have  wrought 
for  the  negro  a  benefit  as  sudden  as  when  a  thermom- 
eter is  brought  out  of  the  shade  into  the  sun.  It  has 
given  him  eyes  and  ears.  If,  before,  he  was  taxed  with 
such  stupidity,  or  such  defective  vision,  that  he  could 
not  set  a  table  square  to  the  walls  of  an  apartment,  he 
is  now  the  principal  if  not  the  only  mechanic  in  the 
West  Indies  ;  and  is,  besides,  an  architect,  a  physician, 
a  lawyer,  a  magistrate,  an  editor,  and  a  valued  and  in- 


140  ADDRESS. 

creasing  political  power.  The  recent  testimonies  of 
Sturge,  of  Thome  and  Kimball,  of  Gurney,  of  Philippo, 
are  very  explicit  on  this  point,  the  capacity  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  colored  and  the  black  population  in  employ- 
ments of  skill,  of  profit  and  of  trust  ;  and  best  of  all  is 
the  testimony  to  their  moderation.  They  receive  hints 
and  advances  from  the  whites  that  they  will  be  gladly 
received  as  subscribers  to  the  Exchange,  as  members  of 
this  or  that  committee  of  trust.  They  hold  back,  and 
say  to  each  other  that  "social  position  is  not  to  be 
gained  by  pushing." 

I  have  said  that  this  event  interests  ns,  because  it 
came  mainly  from  the  concession  of  the  whites  ;  I  add, 
that  in  part  it  is  the  earning  of  the  blacks.  They  won 
the  pity  and  respect  which  they  have  received,  by  their 
powers  and  native  endowments.  I  think  this  a  circum- 
stance of  the  highest  import.  Their  whole  future  is  in 
it.  Our  planet,  before  the  age  of  written  history,  had 
its  races  of  savages,  like  the  generations  of  sour  paste, 
or  the  animalcules  that  wriggle  and  bite  in  a  drop  of 
putrid  water.  Who  cares  for  these  or  for  their  wars  ? 
We  do  not  wish  a  world  of  bugs  or  of  birds  ;  neither 
afterward  of  Scythians,  Caraibs  or  Feejees.  The  grand 
style  of  nature,  her  great  periods,  is  all  we  observe  in 
them.  Who  cares  for  oppressing  whites,  or  oppressed 
blacks,  twenty  centuries  ago,  more  than  for  bad  dreams  ? 
Eaters  and  food  are  in  the  harmony  of  nature  ;  and 
there  too  is  the  germ  forever  protected,  unfolding  gi- 
gantic leaf  after  leaf,  a  newer  flower,  a  richer  fruit,  in 
every  period,  yet  its  next  product  is  never  to  be  guessed. 
It  will  only  save  what  is  worth  saving  ;  and  it  saves  not 
by  compassion,  but  by  power.  It  appoints  no  police  to 
guard  the  lion,  but  his  teeth  and  claws  ;  no  fort  or  city 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  141 

for  the  bird,  but  his  wings  ;  no  rescue  for  flies  and 
mites,  but  their  spawning  numbers,  which  no  ravages 
can  overcome.  It  deals  with  men  after  the  same  man- 
net-.  If  they  are  rude  and  foolish,  down  they  must  go. 
When  at  last  in  a  race,  a  new  principle  appears,  an  idea, 
—  that  conserves  it ;  ideas  only  save  races.  If  the  black 
man  is  feeble  and  not  important  to  the  existing  races, 
not  on  a  parity  with  the  best  race,  the  black  man  must 
serve,  and  be  exterminated.  But  if  the  black  man  car- 
ries in  his  bosom  an  indispensable  element  of  a  new 
and  coining  civilization  ;  for  the  sake  of  that  element, 
no  wrong,  nor  strength  nor  circumstance  can  hurt  him: 
he  will  survive  and  play  his  part.  JSo  now,  the  arrival 
in  the  world  of  such  men  as  Toussaint,  and  the  Haytien 
heroes,  or  of  the  leaders  of  their  race  in  Barbadoes  and 
Jamaica,  outweighs  in  good  omen  all  the  English  and 
American  humanity.  The  anti-  slavery  of  the  whole 
world  is  dust  in  the  balance  before  this, — is  a  poor 
squeamishness  and  nervousness :  the  might  and  the 
right,  are  here  :  here  is  the  anti-slave  :  here  is  man  : 
and  if  you  have  man,  black  or  white  is  an  insignificance. 
The  intellect,  —  that  is  miraculous  !  Who  has  it,  has 
the  talisman  :  his  skin  and  bones,  though  they  were  of 
the  color  of  night,  are  transparent,  and  the  everlasting 
stars  shine  through,  with  attractive  beams.  But  a  com- 
passion for  that  which  is  not  and  cannot  be  useful  or 
lovely,  is  degrading  and  futile.  All  the  songs  and 
newspapers  and  money-subscriptions  and  vituperation  of 
such  as  do  not  think  with  us,  will  avail  nothing  against 
a  fact.  I  say  to  you,  you  must  save  yourself,  black  or 
white,  man  or  woman  ;  other  help  is  none.  I  esteem 
the  occasion  of  this  jubilee  to  be  the  proud  discovery 
that  the  black  race  can  contend  with  the  white  ;  that, 


1 42  ADDRESS. 

in  the  great  anthem  which  we  call  history,  a  piece  of 
many  parts  and  vast  compass,  after  playing  a  long 
time  a  very  low  and  subdued  accompaniment,  they  per- 
ceive the  time  arrived  when  they  can  strike  in  with 
effect  and  take  a  master's  part  in  the  music.  The  civil- 
ity of  the  world  has  reached  that  pitch  that  their  more 
moral  genius  is  becoming  indispensable,  and  the  quality 
of  this  race  is  to  be  honored  for  itself.  For  this,  they 
have  been  preserved  in  sandy  deserts,  in  rice-swamps, 
in  kitchens  and  shoe -shops,  so  long:  now  let  them 
emerge,  clothed  and  in  their  own  form. 

There  remains  the  very  elevated  consideration  which 
the  subject  opens,  but  which  belongs  to  more  abstract 
views  than  we  are  now  taking,  this  namely,  that  the 
civility  of  no  race  can  be  perfect  whilst  another  race  is 
degraded.  It  is  a  doctrine  alike  of  the  oldest  and  of  the 
newest  philosophy,  that  man  is  one,  and  that  you  can- 
not injure  any  member,  without  a  sympathetic  injury 
to  all  the  members.  America  is  not  civil,  whilst  Africa 
is  barbarous. 

These  considerations  seem  to  leave  no  choice  for  the 
action  of  the  intellect  and  the  conscience  of  the  country. 
There  have  been  moments  in  this,  as  well  as  in  every 
piece  of  moral  history,  when  there  seemed  room  for  the 
infusions  of  a  skeptical  philosophy  ;  when  it  seemed 
doubtful  whether  brute  force  would  not  triumph  in  the 
eternal  struggle.  I  doubt  not  that  sometimes,  a  de- 
spairing negro,  when  jumping  over  the  ship's  sides  to 
escape  from  the  white  devils  who  surrounded  him,  has 
believed  there  was  no  vindication  of  right  ;  it  is  hor- 
rible to  think  of,  but  it  seemed  so.  I  doubt  not  that 
sometimes  the  negro's  friend,  in  the  face  of  scornful 
and  brutal  hundreds  of  traders  and  drivers,  has  felt  his 


WEST   INDIA   EMANCIPATION.  143 

heart  sink.  Especially,  it  seems  to  me,  some  degree  of 
despondency  is  pardonable,  when  he  observes  the  men 
of  conscience  and  of  intellect,  his  own  natural  allies  and 
champions,  —  those  whose  attention  should  be  nailed  to 
the  grand  objects  of  this  cause,  so  hotly  offended  by 
whatever  incidental  petulances  or  inflrmities  of  indis- 
creet defenders  of  the  negro,  as  to  permit  themselves 
to  be  ranged  with  the  enemies  of  the  human  race  ;  and 
names  vvhich  should  be  the  alarums  of  liberty  and  the 
watchwords  of  truth,  are  mixed  up  with  all  the  rotten 
rabble  of  selfishness  and  tyranny.  I  assure  myself  that 
this  coldness  and  blindness  will  pass  away.  A  single 
noble  wind  of  sentiment  will  scatter  them  forever.  I 
am  sure  that  the  good  and  wise  elders,  the  ardent  and 
generous  youth,  will  not  permit  what  is  incidental  and 
exceptional  to  withdraw  their  devotion  from  the  essen- 
tial and  permanent  characters  of  the  question.  There 
have  been  moments,  I  said,  when  men  might  be  forgiven 
wbo  doubted.  Those  moments  are  past.  Seen  in  masses, 
it  cannot  be  disputed,  there  is  progress  in  human  soci- 
ety. There  is  a  blessed  necessity  by  which  the  interest 
of  men  is  alwajrs  driving  them  to  the  right  ;  and,  again, 
making  all  crime  mean  and  ugly.  The  genius  of  the 
Saxon  race,  friendly  to  liberty  ;  the  enterprise,  the  very 
muscular  vigor  of  this  nation,  are  inconsistent  with 
slavery.  The  Intellect,  with  blazing  eye,  looking 
through  history  from  the  beginning  onward,  gazes  on 
this  blot  and  it  disappears.  The  sentiment  of  Right, 
once  very  low  and  indistinct,  but  ever  more  articulate, 
because  it  is  the  voice  of  the  universe,  pronounces  Free- 
dom. The  Power  that  built  this  fabric  of  things  af- 
firms it  in  the  heart  ;  and  in  the  history  of  the  first  of 
August,  has  made  a  sign  to  the  ages,  of  his  will. 


WAR. 


THE  archangel  Hope 

Looks  to  the  azure  cope, 
Waits  through  dark  ages  for  the  morn, 
Defeated  day  by  day,  but  unto  Victory  bom. 


WAR.1 


IT  has  been  a  favorite  study  of  modern  philosophy 
to  indicate  the  steps  of  human  progress,  to  watch  the 
rising  of  a  thought  in  one  man's  mind,  the  communica- 
tion of  it  to  a  few,  to  a  small  minority,  its  expansion 
and  general  reception,  until  it  publishes  itself  to  the 
world  by  destroying  the  existing  laws  and  institutions, 
and  the  generation  of  new.  Looked  at  in  this  general 
and  historical  way,  many  things  wear  a  very  different 
face  from  that  they  show  near  by,  and  one  at  a  time, 

—  and,  particularly,  war.     War,  which  to  sane  men  at 
the  present  day  begins  to  look  like  an  epidemic  insan- 
ity, breaking  out  here  and  there  like  the  cholera  or  in- 
fluenza, infecting  men's  brains  instead  of  their  bowels, 

—  when   seen  in  the  remote  past,  in   the   infancy  of 
society,  appears  a  part  of  the  connection  of  events,  and, 
in  its  place,  necessary. 

As  far  as  history  has  preserved  to  us  the  slow  un- 
foldings  of  any  savage  tribe,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how 
war  could  be  avoided  by  such  wild,  passionate,  needy, 
ungoverned,  strong-bodied  creatures.  For  in  the  in- 
fancy of  society,  when  a  thin  population  and  improvi- 
dence make  the  supply  of  food  and  of  shelter  insuffi- 

i  Delivered  as  a  lecture  in  Boston,  in  March,  1838.  Reprinted  from 
"Esthetic  Papers,"  edited  by  Miss  li.  P.  Peabody,  1849. 


148  WAR. 

cient  and  very  precarious,  and  when  hunger,  thirst,  ague 
and  frozen  limbs  universally  take  precedence  of  the 
wants  of  the  mind  and  the  heart,  the  necessities  of  the 
strong  will  certainly  be  satisfied  at  the  cost  of  the  weak, 
at  whatever  peril  of  future  revenge.  It  is  plain,  too, 
that  in  the  first  dawnings  of  the  religious  sentiment, 
that  blends  itself  with  their  passions  and  is  oil  to  the 
fire.  Not  only  every  tribe  has  war-gods,  religious  fes- 
tivals in  victory,  but  religious  wars. 

The  student  of  history  acquiesces  the  more  readily 
in  this  copious  bloodshed  of  the  early  annals,  bloodshed 
in  God's  name  too,  when  he  learns  that  it  is  a  tempo- 
rary and  preparatory  state,  and  does  actively  forward 
the  culture  of  man.  War  educates  the  senses,  calls 
into  action  the  will,  perfects  the  physical  constitution, 
brings  men  into  such  swift  and  close  collision  in  crit- 
ical moments  that  man  measures  man.  On  its  own 
scale,  on  the  virtues  it  loves,  it  endures  no  counterfeit, 
but  shakes  the  whole  society  until  every  atom  falls  into 
the  place  its  specific  gravity  assigns  it.  It  presently' 
finds  the  value  of  good  sense  and  of  foresight,  and 
Ulysses  takes  rank  next  to  Achilles.  The  leaders,  picked 
men  of  a  courage  and  vigor  tried  and  augmented  in 
fifty  battles,  are  emulous  to  distinguish  themselves 
above  each  other  by  new  merits,  as  clemency,  hospital- 
ity, splendor  of  living.  The  people  imitate  the  chiefs. 
The  strong  tribe,  in  which  war  has  become  an  art,  at- 
tack and  conquer  their  neighbors,  and  teach  them  their 
arts  and  virtues.  New  territory,  augmented  numbers 
and  extended  interests  call  out  new  virtues  and  abilities, 
and  the  tribe  makes  long  strides.  And,  finally,  when 
much  progress  has  been  made,  all  its  secrets  of  wisdom 
and  art  are  disseminated  by  its  invasions.  Plutarch,  in 


WAR.  149 

his  essay  "On  the  Fortune  of  Alexander,"  considers 
the  invasion  and  conquest  of  the  East  by  Alexander  as 
one  of  the  most  bright  and  pleasing  pages  in  history  ; 
and  it  must  be  owned  he  gives  sound  reason  for  his 
opinion.  It  had  the  effect  of  uniting  into  one  great 
interest  the  divided  commonwealths  of  Greece,  and  in- 
fusing a  new  and  more  enlarged  public  spirit  into  the 
councils  of  their  statesmen.  It  carried  the  arts  and 
language  and  philosophy  of  the  Greeks  into  the  sluggish 
and  barbarous  nations  of  Persia,  Assyria  and  India. 
It  introduced  the  arts  of  husbandry  among  tribes  of 
hunters  and  shepherds.  It  weaned  the  Scythians  and 
Persians  from  some  cruel  and  licentious  practices  to  a 
more  civil  way  of  life.  It  introduced  the  sacredness  of 
marriage  among  them.  It  built  seventy  cities,  and 
sowed  the  Greek  customs  and  humane  laws  over  Asia, 
and  united  hostile  nations  under  one  code.  It  brought 
different  families  of  the  human  race  together,  —  to 
blows  at  first,  but  afterwards  to  truce,  to  trade  and  to 
intermarriage.  It  would  be  very  easy  to  show  analo- 
gous benefits  that  have  resulted  from  military  move- 
ments of  later  ages. 

Considerations  of  this  kind  lead  us  to  a  true  view  of 
the  nature  and  office  of  war.  We  see  it  is  the  subject 
of  all  history  ;  that  it  has  been  the  principal  employ- 
ment of  the  most  conspicuous  men  ;  that  it  is  at  this 
moment  the  delight  of  half  the  world,  of  almost  all 
young  and  ignorant  persons  ;  that  it  is  exhibited  to  us 
continually  in  the  dumb  show  of  brute  nature,  where 
war  between  tribes,  and  between  individuals  of  the 
same  tribe,  perpetually  rages.  The  microscope  reveals 
miniature  butchery  in  atomies  and  infinitely  small  biters 
that  swim  and  fight  in  an  illuminated  drop  of  water  ; 


150  WAR. 

and  the  little  globe  is  but  a  too  faithful  miniature  of 
the  large. 

What  does  all  this  war,  beginning  from  the  lowest 
races  and  reaching  up  to  man,  signify  ?  la  it  not  man- 
ifest that  it  covers  a  great  and  beneficent  principle, 
which  nature  had  deeply  at  heart  ?  What  is  that  prin- 
ciple ?  —  It  is  self-help.  Nature  implants  with  life  the 
instinct  of  self-help,  perpetual  struggle  to  be,  to  resist 
opposition,  to  attain  to  freedom,  to  attain  to  a  mastery 
and  the  security  of  a  permanent,  self-defended  being  ; 
and  to  each  creature  these  objects  are  made  so  dear 
that  it  risks  its  life  continually  in  the  struggle  for  these 
ends. 

But  whilst  this  principle,  necessarily,  is  inwrought 
into  the  fabric  of  every  creature,  yet  it  is  but  one  in- 
stinct ;  and  though  a  primary  one,  or  we  may  say  the 
very  first,  yet  the  appearance  of  the  other  instincts 
immediately  modifies  and  controls  this  ;  turns  its  ener- 
gies into  harmless,  useful  and  high  courses,  showing 
thereby  what  was  its  ultimate  design  ;  and,  finally, 
takes  out  its  fangs.  The  instinct  of  self-help  is  very 
early  unfolded  in  the  coarse  and  merely  brute  form  of 
war,  only  in  the  childhood  and  imbecility  of  the  other 
instincts,  and  remains  in  that  form  only  until  their  de- 
velopment. It  is  the  ignorant  and  childish  part  of 
mankind  that  is  the  fighting  part.  Idle  and  vacant 
minds  want  excitement,  as  all  boys  kill  oats.  B:dl -bait- 
ing, cockpits  and  the  boxer's  ring  arc  the  enjoyment  of 
the  part  of  society  whose  animal  nature  alone  has  been 
developed.  In  some  parts  of  this  country,  where  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  faculties  have  as  yet  scarcely  any 
culture,  the  absorbing  topic  of  all  conversation  is  whip- 
ping ;  who  fought,  and  which  whipped  ?  Of  man,  boy, 


WAR.  151 

or  beast,  the  only  trait  that  much  interests  the  speak- 
ers is  the  pugnacity.  And  why  ?  Because  the  speaker 
has  as  yet  no  other  image  of  manly  activity  and  virtue, 
none  of  endurance,  none  of  perseverance,  none  of  char- 
ity, none  of  the  attainment  of  truth.  Put  him  into 
a  circle  of  cultivated  men,  where  the  conversation 
broaches  the  great  questions  that  besiege  the  human 
reason,  and  he  would  be  dumb  and  unhappy,  as  an  In- 
dian in  church. 

To  men  of  a  sedate  and  mature  spirit,  in  whom  is  any 
knowledge  or  mental  activity,  the  detail  of  battle  be- 
comes insupportably  tedious  and  revolting.  It  is  like 
the  talk  of  one  of  those  monomaniacs  whom  we  some- 
times meet  in  society,  who  converse  on  horses  ;  and  Fon- 
tenelle  expressed  a  volume  of  meaning  when  he  said,  "  I 
hate  war,  for  it  spoils  conversation." 

Nothing  is  plainer  than  that  the  sympathy  with  war 
is  a  juvenile  and  temporary  state.  Not  only  the  moral 
sentiment,  but  trade,  learning  and  whatever  makes  in- 
tercourse, conspire  to  put  it  down.  Trade,  as  all  men 
know,  is  the  antagonist  of  war.  Wherever  there  is  no 
property,  the  people  will  put  on  the  knapsack  for  bread ; 
but  trade  is  instantly  endangered  and  destroyed.  And, 
moreover,  trade  brings  men  to  look  each  other  in  the 
face,  and  gives  the  parties  the  knowledge  that  these  en- 
emies over  sea  or  over  the  mountain  are  such  men  as 
we  ;  who  laugh  and  grieve,  who  love  and  fear,  as  we  do. 
And  learning  and  art,  and  especially  religion,  weave 
ties  that  make  war  look  like  fratricide,  as  it  is.  And 
as  all  history  is  the  picture  of  war,  as  we  have  said,  so 
it  is  no  less  true  that  it  is  the  record  of  the  mitigation 
and  decline  of  war.  Early  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries,  the  Italian  cities  had  grown  so  populous  and 


152  WAR. 

strong,  that  they  forced  the  rural  nobility  to  dismantle 
their  castles,  which  were  dens  of  cruelty,  and  come  and 
reside  in  the  towns.  The  Popes,  to  their  eternal  honor, 
declared  religious  jubilees,  during  which  all  hostilities 
were  suspended  throughout  Christendom,  and  man  had 
a  breathing  space.  The  increase  of  civility  has  abol- 
ished the  vise  of  poison  and  of  torture,  once  supposed  as 
necessary  as  navies  now.  And,  finally,  the  art  of  war, 
what  with  gunpowder  and  tactics,  has  made,  as  all  men 
know,  battles  less  frequent  and  less  murderous. 

By  all  these  means,  war  has  been  steadily  on  the' de- 
cline ;  and  we  read  with  astonishment  of  the  beastly 
fighting  of  the  old  times.  Only  in  Elizabeth's  time,  out 
of  the  European  waters,  piracy  was  all  but  universal. 
The  proverb  was,  —  "  No  peace  beyond  the  line  ;  "  and 
the  seamen  shipped  on  the  buccaneer's  bargain,  "  No 
prey,  no  pay."  The  celebrated  Cavendish,  who  was 
thought  in  his  times  a  good  Christian  man,  wrote  thus 
to  Lord  Hunsdon,  on  his  return  from  a  voyage  round 
the  world  :  —  "  Sept.  1588.  It  hath  pleased  Almighty 
God  to  suffer  me  to  circumpass  the  whole  globe  of  the 
world,  entering  in  at  the  Strait  of  ^Magellan,  and  re- 
turning by  the  Cape  of  Buena  Esperanca  ;  in  which 
voyage,  I  have  either  discovered  or  brought  certain  in- 
telligence of  all  the  rich  places  of  the  world,  which  were 
ever  discovered  by  any  Christian.  I  navigated  along 
the  coast  of  Chili,  Peru,  and  New  Spain,  where  I  made 
great  spoils.  I  burnt  and  sunk  nineteen  sail  of  ships,  small 
and  great.  All  the  villages  and  towns  that  ever  I  landed  at, 
I  burned  and  spoiled.  And  had  I  not  been  discovered 
upon  the  coast,  I  had  taken  great  quantity  of  treasure. 
The  matter  of  most  profit  to  me  was  a  «-reat  ship  of  the 
king's,  which  I  took  at  California,"  &c.  And  the  good 


WAR.  153 

Cavendish  piously  begins  this  statement,  —  "  It  hath 
pleased  Almighty  God." 

Indeed,  our  American  annals  have  preserved  the  ves- 
tiges of  barbarous  warfare  down  to  the  more  recent 
times.  I  read  in  Williams's  History  of  Maine,  that "  As- 
sacombuit,  the  Sagamore  of  the  Anagnnticook  tribe,  was 
remarkable  for  his  turpitude  and  ferocity  above  all 
other  known  Indians  ;  that,  in  1705,  Vaudreuil  sent  him 
to  France,  where  he  was  introduced  to  the  king.  When 
he  appeared  at  court,  he  lifted  up  his  hand,  and  said, 
'  This  hand  has  slain  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  your  maj- 
esty's enemies  within  the  territories  of  New  England.' 
This  so  pleased  the  king  that  he  knighted  him,  and  or- 
dered a  pension  of  eight  livres  a  day  to  be  paid  him 
during  life."  This  valuable  person,  on  his  return  to 
America,  took  to  killing  his  own  neighbors  and  kindred, 
with  such  appetite  that  his  tribe  combined  against  him, 
and  would  have  killed  him  had  he  not  fled  his  country 
forever. 

The  scandal  which  we  feel  in  such  facts  certainly 
shows  that  we  have  got  on  a  little.  All  history  is  the 
decline  of  war,  though  the  slow  decline.  All  that  soci- 
ety has  yet  gained  is  mitigation  :  the  doctrine  of  the 
right  of  war  still  remains. 

For  ages  (  for  ideas  work  in  ages,  and  animate  vast 
societies  of  men  )  the  human  race  has  gone  on  under  the 
tyranny  —  shall  I  so  call  it  ?  —  of  this  first  brutish  form 
of  their  effort  to  be  men  ;  that  is,  for  ages  they  have 
shared  so  much  of  the  nature  of  the  lower  animals,  the 
tiger  and  the  shark,  and  the  savages  of  the  water-drop. 
They  have  nearly  exhausted  all  the  good  and  all  the 
evil  of  this  form  :  they  have  held  as  fast  to  this  degra- 
dation as  their  worst  enemy  could  desire  ;  but  all  things 


154  WAR. 

have  an  end,  and  so  has  this.  The  eternal  germination 
of  the  better  has  unfolded  new  powers,  new  instincts, 
which  were  really  concealed  under  this  rough  and  base 
rind.  The  sublime  question  has  startled  one  and  another 
happy  soul  in  different  quarters  of  the  globe,  —  Cannot 
love  be,  as  well  as  hate  ?  Would  not  love  answer  the 
same  end,  or  even  a  better  ?  Cannot  peace  be,  as  well 
as  war  ? 

This  thought  is  no  man's  invention,  neither  St.  Pierre's 
nor  Rousseau's,  but  the  rising  of  the  general  tide  in  the 
human  soul,  —  and  rising  highest,  and  first  made'  visi- 
ble, in  the  most  simple  and  pure  souls,  who  have  there- 
fore announced  it  to  us  beforehand  ;  but  presently  we 
all  see  it.  It  has  now  become  so  distinct  as  to  be  a  so- 
cial thought  :  societies  can  be  formed  on  it.  It  is  ex- 
pounded, illustrated,  defined,  with  different  degrees  of 
clearness  ;  and  its  actualization,  or  the  measures  it  should 
inspire,  predicted  according  to  the  light  of  each  seer. 

The  idea  itself  is  the  epoch  ;  the  fact  that  it  has  be- 
come so  distinct  to  any  small  number  of  persons  as  to 
become  a  subject  of  prayer  and  hope,  of  concert  and 
discussion,  —  that  is  the  commanding  fact.  This  hav- 
ing come,  much  more  will  follow.  Revolutions  go  not 
backward.  The  star  once  risen,  though  only  one  man 
in  the  hemisphere  has  yet  seen  its  upper  limb  in  the  ho- 
rizon, will  mount  and  mount,  until  it  becomes  visible  to 
other  men,  to  multitudes,  and  climbs  the  zenith  of  all 
eyes.  And  so  it  is  not  a  great  matter  how  long  men  re- 
fuse to  believe  the  advent  of  peace  :  war  is  on  its  last 
legs ;  and  a  universal  peace  is  as  sure  as  is  the  preva- 
lence of  civilization  over  barbarism,  of  liberal  govern- 
ments over  feudal  forms.  The  question  for  us  is  only 
How  soon  ? 


WAR.  155 

That  the  project  of  peace  should  appear  visionary  to 
great  numbers  of  sensible  men  ;  should  appear  laugha- 
ble even,  to  numbers  ;  should  appear  to  the  grave  and 
good-natured  to  be  embarrassed  with  extreme  practical 
difficulties,  —  is  very  natural.  '  This  is  a  poor,  tedious 
society  of  yours,'  they  say  :  '  we  do  not  see  what  good 
can  come  of  it.  Peace  !  why,  we  are  all  at  peace  now. 
But  if  a  foreign  nation  should  wantonly  insult  or  plun- 
der our  commerce,  or,  worse  yet,  should  land  on  our 
shores  to  rob  and  kill,  you  would  not  have  us  sit,  and 
be  robbed  and  killed  ?  You  mistake  the  times ;  you 
overestimate  the  virtue  of  men.  You  forget  that  the 
quiet  which  now  sleeps  in  cities  and  in  farms,  which  lets 
the  wagon  go  unguarded  and  the  farm-house  unbolted, 
rests  on  the  perfect  understanding  of  all  men  that  the 
musket,  the  halter  and  the  jail  stand  behind  there, 
ready  to  punish  any  disturber  of  it.  All  admit  that 
this  would  be  the  best  policy,  if  the  world  were  all  a 
church,  if  all  men  were  the  best  men,  if  all  would  agree 
to  accept  this  rule.  But  it  is  absurd  for  one  nation  to 
attempt  it  alone.' 

In  the  first  place,  we  answer  that  we  never  make 
much  account  of  objections  which  merely  respect  the 
actual  state  of  the  world  at  this  moment,  but  which  ad- 
mit the  general  expediency  and  permanent  excellence  of 
the  project.  What  is  the  best  must  be  the  true  ;  and 
what  is  true,  —  that  is,  what  is  at  bottom  fit  and  agree- 
able to  the  constitution  of  man,  —  must  at  last  prevail 
over  all  obstruction  and  all  opposition.  There  is  no 
good  now  enjoyed  by  society  that  was  not  once  as  prob- 
lematical and  visionary  as  this.  It  is  the  tendency  of 
the  true  interest  of  man  to  become  his  desire  and  stead- 
fast aim. 


156  WAR. 

But,  further,  it  is  a  lesson  which  all  history  teaches 
wise  men,  to  put  trust  in  ideas,  and  not  in  circumstances. 
We  have  all  grown  up  in  the  sight  of  frigates  and 
navy  yards,  of  armed  forts  and  islands,  of  arsenals  and 
militia.  The  reference  to  any  foreign  register  will  in- 
form us  of  the  number  of  thousand  or  million  men  that 
are  now  under  arms  in  the  vast  colonial  system  of  the 
British  empire,  of  Russia,  Austria  and  France;  and  one 
is  scared  to  find  at  what  a  cost  the  peace  of  the  globe  is 
kept.  This  vast  apparatus  of  artillery,  of  fleets,  of 
stone  bastions  and  trenches  and  embankments;  this  in- 
cessant patrolling  of  sentinels;  this  waving  of  national 
flags ;  this  reveille  and  evening  gun ;  this  martial  music 
and  endless  playing  of  marches  and  singing  of  military 
and  naval  songs  seem  to  us  to  constitute  an  imposing 
actual,  which  will  not  yield  in  centuries  to  the  feeble, 
deprecatory  voices  of  a  handful  of  friends  of  peace. 

Thus  always  we  are  daunted  by  the  appearances;  not 
seeing  that  their  whole  value  lies  at  bottom  in  the  state 
of  mind.  It  is  really  a  thought  that  built  this  porten- 
tous war-establishment,  and  a  thought  shall  also  melt  it 
away.  Every  nation  and  every  man  instantly  surround 
themselves  with  a  material  apparatus  which  exactly  cor- 
responds to  their  moral  state,  or  their  state  of  thought. 
Observe  how  every  truth  and  every  error,  each  a  thought 
of  some  man's  mind,  clothes  itself  with  societies,  houses, 
cities,  language,  ceremonies,  newspapers.  Observe  the 
ideas  of  the  present  day,  —  orthodoxy,  skepticism,  mis- 
sions, popular  education,  temperance,  anti-masonry,  anti- 
lavery;  see  how  each  of  these  abstractions  has  em- 
jodied  itself  in  an  imposing  apparatus  in  the  commu- 
nity; and  how  timber,  brick,  lime  and  stone  have  flown 
into  convenient  shape,  obedient  to  the  master-idea  reign- 
ing in  the  minds  of  many  persons. 


WAR.  157 

You  shall  hear,  some  day,  of  a  wild  fancy  which  some 
man  has  in  his  brain,  of  the  mischief  of  secret  oaths. 
Come  again  one  or  two  years  afterwards,  and  you  shall 
see  it  has  built  great  houses  of  solid  wood  and  brick 
and  mortar.  You  shall  see  a  hundred  presses  printing 
a  million  sheets  ;  you  shall  see  men  and  horses  and 
wheels  made  to  walk,  run  and  roll  for  it:  this  great 
body  of  matter  thus  executing  that  one  man's  wild 
thought.  This  happens  daily,  yearly  about  us,  with 
half  thoughts,  often  with  flimsy  lies,  pieces  of  policy 
and  speculation.  With  good  nursing  they  will  last 
three  or  four  years  before  they  will  come  to  nothing. 
But  when  a  truth  appears,  —  as,  for  instance,  a  percep- 
tion in  the  wit  of  one  Columbus  that  there  is  land  in  the 
Western  Sea;  though  he  alone  of  all  men  has  that 
thought,  and  they  all  jeer,  —  it  will  build  ships;  it  will 
build  fleets;  it  will  carry  over  half  Spain  and  half  Eng- 
land; it  will  plant  a  colony,  a  state,  nations  and  half  a 
globe  full  of  men. 

We  surround  ourselves  always,  according  to  our  free- 
dom and  ability,  with  true  images  of  ourselves  in  things, 
whether  it  be  ships  or  books  or  cannons  or  churches. 
The  standing  army,  the  arsenal,  the  camp  and  the  gib- 
bet do  not  appertain  to  man.  They  only  serve  as  an 
index  to  show  where  man  is  now;  what  a  bad,  ungov- 
erned  temper  he  has ;  what  an  ugly  neighbor  he  is ;  how 
his  affections  halt;  how  low  his  hope  lies.  He  who 
laves  the  bristle  of  bayonets  only  sees  in  their  glitter 
what  beforehand  he  feels  in  his  heart.  It  is  avarice 
anil  hatred;  it  is  that  quivering  lip,  that  cold,  hating 
eye,  which  built  magazines  and  powder-houses. 

It  follows  of  course  that  the  least  change  in  the  man 
will  change  his  circumstances;  the  least  enlargement  of 


158  WAR. 

his  ideas,  the  least  mitigation  of  his  feelings  in  respect 
to  other  men;  if,  for  example,  he  could  be  inspired  with 
a  tender  kindness  to  the  souls  of  men,  and  should  come 
to  feel  that  every  man  was  another  self  with  whom  he 
might  come  to  join,  as  left  hand  works  with  right. 
Every  degree  of  the  ascendancy  of  this  feeling  would 
cause  the  most  striking  changes  of  external  things: 
the  tents  would  be  struck;  the  man-of-war  would  rot 
ashore;  the  arms  rust;  the  cannon  would  become  street- 
posts;  the  pikes,  a  fisher's  harpoon;  the  marching  regi- 
ment would  be  a  caravan  of  emigrants,  peaceful  pioneers 
at  the  fountains  of  the  Wabash  and  the  Missouri.  And 
so  it  must  and  will  be:  bayonet  and  sword  must  first 
retreat  a  little  from  their  ostentatious  prominence;  then 
quite  hide  themselves,  as  the  sheriff's  halter  does  now, 
inviting  the  attendance  only  of  relations  and  friends; 
and  then,  lastly,  will  be  transferred  to  the  museums  of 
the  curious,  as  poisoning  and  torturing  tools  are  at  this 
day. 

War  and  peace  thus  resolve  themselves  into  a  mer- 
cury of  the  state  of  cultivation.  At  a  certain  stage  of 
his  progress,  the  man  fights,  if  lie  be  of  a  sound  body 
and  mind.  At  a  certain  higher  stage,  lie  makes  no 
offensive  demonstration,  but  is  alert  to  repel  injury,  and 
of  an  unconquerable  heart.  At  a  still  higher  stage,  ho 
comes  into  the  region  of  holiness  ;  passion  has  pnssed 
away  from  him  ;  his  warlike  nature  is  all  converted 
into  an  active  medicinal  principle  ;  lie  sacrifices  himself, 
and  accepts  with  alacrity  wearisome  tasks  of  denial  and 
charity  ;  but,  being  attacked,  he  bears  it  and  turns  the 
other  cheek,  as  one  engaged,  throughout  his  being,  no 
longer  to  the  service  of  an  individual,  but  to  the  common 
soul  of  all  men. 


WAR.  159 

Since  the  peace  question  has  been  before  the  public 
mind,  those  who  affirm  its  right  and  expediency  have 
naturally  been  met  with  objections  more  or  less  weighty. 
There  are  cases  frequently  put  by  the  curious,  —  moral 
problems,  like  those  problems  in  arithmetic  which  in 
long  winter  evenings  the  rustics  try  the  hardness  of 
their  heads  in  ciphering  out.  And  chiefly  it  is  said,  — 
Either  accept  this  principle  for  better,  for  worse,  carry 
it  out  to  the  end,  and  meet  its  absurd  consequences  ;  or 
else,  if  you  pretend  to  set  an  arbitrary  limit,  a  "  Thus 
far,  no  farther,"  then  give  up  the  principle,  and  take 
that  limit  which  the  common-sense  of  all  mankind  has 
set,  and  which  distinguishes  offensive  war  as  criminal, 
defensive  war  as  just.  Otherwise,  if  you  go  for  no  war, 
then  be  consistent,  and  give  up  self-defence  in  the  high- 
way, in  your  own  house.  Will  you  push  it  thus  far  ? 
Will  you  stick  to  your  principle  of  non-resistance  when 
your  strong-box  is  broken  open,  when  your  wife  and 
babes  are  insulted  and  slaughtered  in  your  sight  ?  If 
you  say  yes,  you  only  invite  the  robber  and  assassin  ; 
and  a  few  bloody-minded  desperadoes  would  soon 
butcher  the  good. 

In  reply  to  this  charge  of  absurdity  on  the  extreme 
peace  doctrine,  as  shown  in  the  supposed  consequences, 
1  wish  to  say  that  such  deductions  consider  only  one  half 
of  the  fact.  They  look  only  at  the  passive  side  of  the 
friend  of  peace  ;  only  at  his  passivity  ;  they  quite  omit 
to  consider  his  activity.  But  no  man,  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed, ever  embraced  the  cause  of  peace  and  philan- 
thropy for  the  sole  end  and  satisfaction  of  being  plun- 
dered and  slain.  A  man  does  not  come  the  length  of 
the  spirit  of  martyrdom  without  some  active  purpose, 
some  equal  motive,  some  naming  love.  If  you  have  a 


160  WAR. 

nation  of  men  who  have  risen  to  that  height  of  moral 
cultivation  that  they  will  not  declare  war  or  carry  arms, 
for  they  have  not  so  much  madness  left  in  their  brains, 
you  have  a  nation  of  lovers,  of  benefactors,  of  true, 
great  and  able  men.  Let  me  know  more  of  that  nation  ; 
I  shall  not  find  them  defenceless,  with  idle  hands  swing- 
ing at  their  sides.  I  shall  find  them  men  of  love,  honor 
and  truth  ;  men  of  an  immense  industry  ;  men  whoso 
influence  is  felt  to  the  end  of  the  earth  ;  men  whose 
very  look  and  voice  carry  the  sentence  of  honor  and 
shame  ;  and  all  forces  yield  to  their  energy  and  persua- 
sion. Whenever  we  see  the  doctrine  of  peace  embraced 
by  a  nation,  we  may  be  assured  it  will  not  be  one  that 
invites  injury  ;  but  one,  on  the  contrary,  which  has  a 
friend  in  the  bottom  of  the  heart  of  every  man,  even  of 
the  violent  and  the  base  ;  one  against  which  no  weapon 
can  prosper  ;  one  which  is  looked  upon  as  the  asylum 
of  the  human  race  and  has  the  tears  and  the  blessings 
of  mankind. 

In  the  second  place,  as  far  as  it  respects  individual 
action  in  difficult  and  extreme  cases,  I  will  say,  such 
cases  seldom  or  never  occur  to  the  good  and  just  man  ; 
nor  are  we  careful  to  say,  or  even  to  know,  what  in  such 
crises  is  to  be  done.  A  wise  man  will  never  impawn 
his  future  being  and  action,  and  decide  beforehand  what 
he  shall  do  in  a  given  extreme  event.  Nature  and  God 
will  instruct  him  in  that  hour. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  How  is  this  new  aspi- 
ration of  the  human  mind  to  be  made  visible  and  real  ? 
How  is  it  to  pass  out  of  thoughts  into  things  ? 

Not,  certainly,  in  the  first  place,  in  the  way  of  routine 
ttnd  mere  forms,  —  the  universal  specific  of  modern  poli- 
tics ;  not  by  organizing  a  society,  and  going  through  a 


WAR.  161 

course  of  resolutions  and  public  manifestoes,  and  being 
thus  formally  accredited  to  the  public  and  to  the  civility 
of  the  newspapers.  We  have  played  this  game  to  tedi- 
ousness.  In  some  of  our  cities  they  choose  noted  duel- 
lists as  presidents  and  officers  of  anti-duelling  societies. 
Men  who  love  that  bloated  vanity  called  public  opinion 
think  all  is  well  if  they  have  once  got  their  bantling 
through  a  sufficient  course  of  speeches  and  cheerings,  of 
one,  two,  or  three  public  meetings  ;  as  if  they  could  do 
anything  :  they  vote  and  vote,  cry  hurrah  on  both  sides, 
no  man  responsible,  no  man  caring  a  pin.  The  next 
season,  an  Indian  war,  or  an  aggression  on  our  commerce 
by  Malays  ;  or  the  party  this  man  votes  with  have  an 
appropriation  to  carry  through  Congress  :  instantly  he 
wags  his  head  the  other  way,  and  cries,  Havoc  and  war  ! 

This  is  not  to  be  carried  by  public  opinion,  but  by 
private  opinion,  by  private  conviction,  by  private,  dear 
and  earnest  love.  For  the  only  hope  of  this  cause  is  in 
the  increased  insight,  and  it  is  to  be  accomplished  by 
the  spontaneous  teaching,  of  the  cultivated  soul,  in  its 
secret  experience  and  meditation,  —  that  it  is  now  time 
that  it  should  pass  out  of  the  state  of  beast  into  the  state 
of  man  ;  it  is  to  hear  the  voice  of  God,  which  bids  the 
devils  that  have  rended  and  torn  him  come  out  of  him 
and  let  him  now  be  clothed  and  walk  forth  in  his  right 
mind. 

Nor,  in  the  next  place,  is  the  peace  principle  to  be 
carried  into  effect  by  fear.  It  can  never  be  defended, 
it  can  never  be  executed,  by  cowards.  Everything  great 
must  be  done  in  the  spirit  of  greatness.  The  manhood 
that  has  been  in  war  must  be  transferred  to  the  cause 
of  peace,  before  war  can  lose  its  charm,  and  peace  be 
venerable  to  men. 

11 


162  WAR. 

The  attractiveness  of  war  shows  one  thing  through 
all  the  throats  of  artillery,  the  thunders  of  so  many 
sieges,  the  sack  of  towns,  the  jousts  of  chivalry,  the 
shock  of  hosts,  —  this  namely,  the  conviction  of  man 
universally,  that  a  man  should  be  himself  responsible, 
with  goods,  health  and  life,  for  his  behavior  ;  that  he 
should  not  ask  of  the  State  protection  ;  should  ask  noth- 
ing of  the  State  ;  should  be  himself  a  kingdom  and  a 
state  ;  fearing  no  man  ;  quite  willing  to  use  the  oppor- 
tunities and  advantages  that  good  government'  throw  in 
his  way,  but  nothing  daunted,  and  not  really  the  poorer 
if  government,  law  and  order  went  by  the  board  ;  be- 
cause in  himself  reside  infinite  resources  ;  because  he  is 
sure  of  himself,  and  never  needs  to  ask  another  what  in 
any  crisis  it  behooves  him  to  do. 

What  makes  to  us  the  attractiveness  of  the  Greek 
heroes  ?  of  the  Roman  ?  What  makes  the  attractive- 
ness of  that  romantic  style  of  living  which  is  the  mate- 
rial of  ten  thousand  plays  and  romances,  from  Shak- 
speare  to  Scott  ;  the  feudal  baron,  the  French,  the 
English  nobility,  the  Warwicks,  Plantagenets  ?  It  is 
their  absolute  self-dependence.  I  do  not  wonder  at  the 
dislike  some  of  the  friends  of  peace  have  expressed  at 
Shakspeare.  The  veriest  churl  and  Jacobin  cannot  re- 
sist the  influence  of  the  style  and  manners  of  these 
haughty  lords.  We  are  affected,  as  boys  and  barba- 
rians are,  by  the  appearance  of  a  few  rich  and  wilful 
gentlemen  who  take  their  honor  into  their  own  keeping, 
defy  the  world,  so  confident  are  they  of  their  courage 
and  strength,  and  whose  appearance  is  the  arrival  of  so 
much  life  and  virtue.  In  dangerous  times  they  are 
presently  tried,  and  therefore  their  name  is  a  flourish  of 
trumpets.  They,  at  least,  affect  us  as  a  reality.  They 


WAR.  163 

are  not  shams,  but  the  substance  of  which  that  age  and 
world  is  made.  They  are  true  heroes  for  their  time. 
They  make  what  is  in  their  minds  the  greatest  sacri- 
fice. They  will,  for  an  injurious  word,  peril  all  their 
state  and  wealth,  and  go  to  the  field.  Take  away  that 
principle  of  responsibleness,  and  they  become  pirates 
and  ruffians. 

This  self-subsistency  is  the  charm  of  war  ;  for  this 
self-subsistency  is  essential  to  bur  idea  of  man.  But 
another  age  comes,  a  truer  religion  and  ethics  open, 
and  a  man  puts  himself  under  the  dominion  of  princi- 
ples. I  see  him  to  be  the  servant  of  truth,  of  love  and 
of  freedom,  and  immovable  in  the  waves  of  the  crowd. 
The  man  of  principle,  that  is,  the  man  who,  without 
any  flourish  of  trumpets,  titles  of  lordship  or  train  of 
guards,  without  any  notice  of  his  action  abroad,  expect- 
ing none,  takes  in  solitude  the  right  step  uniformly,  on 
his  private  choice  and  disdaining  consequences,  —  does 
not  yield,  in  my  imagination,  to  any  man.  He  is  will- 
ing to  be  hanged  at  his  own  gate,  rather  than  consent 
to  any  compromise  of  his  freedom  or  the  suppression  of 
his  conviction.  I  regard  no  longer  those  names  that  so 
tingled  in  my  ear.  This  is  a  baron  of  a  better  nobility 
and  a  stouter  stomach. 

The  cause  of  peace  is  not  the  cause  of  cowardice.  If 
peace  is  sought  to  be  defended  or  preserved  for  the 
safety  of  the  luxurious  and  the  timid,  it  is  a  sham$  and 
the  peace  will  be  base.  War  is  better,  and  the  peace 
will  be  broken.  If  peace  is  to  be  maintained,  it  must 
be  by  brave  men,  who  have  come  up  to  the  same  height 
as  the  hero,  namely,  the  will  to  carry  (heir  life  in  their 
hand,  and  stake  it  at  any  instant  for  their  principle,  but 
who  have  gone  one  step  beyond  the  hero,  and  will  not 


164  WAR. 

seek  another  man's  life  ;  —  men  who  have,  by  their  in- 
tellectual insight  or  else  by  their  moral  elevation,  at- 
tained such  a  perception  of  their  own  intrinsic  worth, 
that  they  do  not  think  property  or  their  own  bod}'  a 
sufficient  good  to  be  saved  by  such  dereliction  of  prin- 
ciple as  treating  a  man  like  a  sheep. 

If  the  universal  cry  for  reform  of  so  many  inveterate 
abuses,  with  which  society  rings,  —  if  the  desire  of  a 
large  class  of  young  men  for  a  faith  and  hope,  intel- 
lectual and  religious,  such  as  they  have  not  yet  found, 
be  an  omen  to  be  trusted  ;  if  the  disposition  to  rely 
more  in  study  and  in  action  on  the  unexplored  riches 
of  the  human  constitution,  —  if  the  search  of  the  sub- 
lime laws  of  morals  and  the  sources  of  hope  and  trust, 
in  man,  and  not  in  books,  in  the  present,  and  not  in  the 
past,  proceed  ;  if  the  rising  generation  can  be  provoked 
to  think  it  unworthy  to  nestle  into  every  abomination  of 
the  past,  and  shall  feel  the  generous  darings  of  auster- 
ity and  virtue,  then  war  has  a  short  dav,  and  human 
blood  will  cease  to  flow. 

It  is  of  little  consequence  in  what  manner,  through 
what  organs,  this  purpose  of  mercy  and  holiness  is  ef- 
fected. The  proposition  of  the  Congress  of  Nations  is 
undoubtedly  that  at  which  the  present  fabric  of  our 
society  and  the  present  course  of  events  do  point.  But 
the  mind,  once  prepared  for  the  reign  of  principles, 
will  easily  find  modes  of  expressing  its  will.  There  is 
the  highest  fitness  in  the  place  and  time  in  which  this 
enterprise  is  begun.  Not  in  an  obscure  corner,  not  in 
a  feudal  Europe,  not  in  an  antiquated  appanage  where 
no  onward  step  can  be  taken  without  rebellion,  is  this 
seed  of  benevolence  laid  in  the  furrow,  with  tears  of 
hope ;  but  in  this  broad  America  of  God  and  man, 


WAR.  165 

where  the  forest  is  only  now  falling,  or  yet  to  fall,  and 
the  green  earth  opened  to  the  inundation  of  emigrant 
men  from  all  quarters  of  oppression  and  guilt ;  here, 
where  not  a  family,  not  a  few  men,  but  mankind,  shall 
say  what  shall  be  ;  here,  we  ask,  Shall  it  be  War,  or 
shall  it  be  Peace  ? 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. 


LECTURE  READ  IX  THE  TABERNACLE,  NEW  YORK  CITY 
MARCH  7,  1854. 


THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. 


I  DO  not  often  speak  to  public  questions  ;  —  they  are 
odious  and  hurtful,  and  it  seems  like  meddling  or  leav- 
ing your  work.  I  have  my  own  spirits  in  prison  ;  — 
spirits  in  deeper  prisons,  whom  no  man  visits  if  I  do  not. 
And  then  I  see  what  havoc  it  makes  with  any  good 
mind,  a  dissipated  philanthropy.  The  one  thing  not  to 
be  forgiven  to  intellectual  persons  is,  not  to  know  their 
own  task,  or  to  take  their  ideas  from  others.  From 
this  want  of  manly  rest  in  their  own  and  rash  accept- 
ance of  other  people's  watchwords,  come  the  imbecility 
and  fatigue  of  their  conversation.  For  they  cannot  af- 
firm these  from  any  original  experience,  and  of  course 
not  with  the  natural  movement  and  total  strength  of 
their  nature  and  talent,  but  only  from  their  memory, 
only  from  their  cramp  position  of  standing  for  their 
teacher.  They  say  what  they  would  have  you  believe, 
but  what  they  do  not  quite  know. 

My  own  habitual  view  is  to  the  well-being  of  stu- 
dents or  scholars.  And  it  is  only  when  the  public  event 
affects  them,  that  it  very  seriously  touches  me.  And 
what  I  have  to  say  is  to  them.  For  every  man  speaks 
mainly  to  a  class  whom  he  works  with  and  more  or  less 
fully  represents.  It  is  to  these  I  am  beforehand  related 
and  engaged,  in  this  audience  or  out  of  it,  —  to  them 


170   LECTURE  ON  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. 

and  not  to  others.  And  yet,  when  I  say  the  class  of 
scholars  or  students,  —  that  is  a  class  which  comprises 
in  some  sort  all  mankind,  comprises  every  man  in  the 
best  hours  of  his  life  ;  and  in  these  days  not  only  virtu- 
ally but  actually.  For  who  are  the  readers  and  think- 
ers of  1854  ?  Owing  to  the  silent  revolution  which 
the  newspaper  has  wrought,  this  class  has  come  in  this 
country  to  take  in  all  classes.  Look  into  the  morning 
trains  which,  from  every  suburb,  carry  the  business  men 
into  the  city  to  their  shops,  counting-rooms,  work-yards 
and  warehouses.  With  them  enters  the  car  —  the  news- 
boy, that  humble  priest  of  politics,  finance,  philosophy, 
and  religion.  He  unfolds  his  magical  sheets,  —  two- 
pence a  head  his  bread  of  knowledge  costs,  —  and  in- 
stantly the  entire  rectangular  assembly,  fresh  from  their 
breakfast,  are  bending  as  one  man  to  their  second  break- 
fast. There  is,  no  doubt,  chaff  enough  in  what  he  brings; 
but  there  is  fact,  thought  and  wisdom  in  the  crude 
mass,  from  all  regions  of  the  world. 

I  have  lived  all  my  life  without  suffering  any  known 
inconvenience  from  American  Slavery.  I  never  saw  it  ; 
I  never  heard  the  whip  ;  I  never  felt  the  check  on  my 
free  speech  and  action,  until,  the  other  day,  when  Mr. 
Webster,  by  his  personal  influence,  brought  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  on  the  country.  I  say  Mr.  Webster,  for 
though  the  Bill  was  not  his,  it  is  yet  notorious  that  he 
was  the  life  and  soul  of  it,  that  he  gave  it  all  he  had  : 
it  cost  him  his  life,  and  under  the  shadow  of  his  great 
name  inferior  men  sheltered  themselves,  threw  their  bal- 
lots for  it  and  made  the  law.  I  say  inferior  men.  There 
were  all  sorts  of  what  are  called  brilliant  men,  accom- 
plished men,  men  of  high  station,  a  President  of  the 
United  States,  Senators,  men  of  eloquent  speech,  but 


LECTURE   ON   THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW.      171 

men  without  self-respect,  without  character,  and  it  was 
strange  to  see  that  office,  age,  fame,  talent,  even  a  re- 
pute for  honesty,  all  count  for  nothing.  They  had  no 
opinions,  they  had  no  memory  for  what  they  had  been 
saying  like  the  Lord's  Prayer  all  their  lifetime  :  they 
were  only  looking  to  what  their  great  Captain  did  :  if 
he  jumped,  they  jumped  ;  if  he  stood  on  his  head,  they 
did.  In  ordinary,  the  supposed  sense  of  their  district 
and  State  is  their  guide,  and  that  holds  them  to  the  part 
of  liberty  and  justice.  But  it  is  always  a  little  difficult 
to  decipher  what  this  public  sense  is  ;  and  when  a  great 
man  comes  who  knots  up  into  himself  the  opinions  and 
wishes  of  the  people,  it  is  so  much  easier  to  follow  him 
as  an  exponent  of  this.  He  too  is  responsible  ;  they  will 
not  be.  It  will  always  suffice  to  say,  —  "I  followed 
him." 

I  saw  plainly  that  the  great  show  their  legitimate 
power  in  nothing  more  than  in  their  power  to  misguide 
us.  I  saw  that  a  great  man,  deservedly  admired  for 
his  powers  and  their  general  right  direction,  was  able, 
—  fault  of  the  total  want  of  stamina  in  public  men,  — 
when  he  failed,  to  break  them  all  with  him,  to  carry 
parties  with  him. 

In  what  I  have  to  say  of  Mr.  Webster  I  do  not  con- 
found him  with  vulgar  politicians  before  or  since.  There 
is  always  base  ambition  enough,  men  who  calculate  on 
the  immense  ignorance  of  the  masses  ;  that  is  their 
quarry  and  farm  :  they  use  the  constituencies  at  home 
only  for  their  shoes.  And,  of  course,  they  can  drive  out 
from  the  contest  any  honorable  man.  The  low  can  best 
win  the  low,  and  all  men  like  to  be  made  much  of. 
There  are  those  too  who  have  power  and  inspiration 
only  to  do  ill.  Their  talent  or  their  faculty  deserts 


172      LECTURE   ON   THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW. 

them  when  they  undertake  any  thing  right.  Mr.  Web- 
ster had  a  natural  ascendancy  of  aspect  and  carriage 
which  distinguished  him  over  all  his  contemporaries. 
His  countenance,  his  figure,  and  his  manners  were  all  in 
so  grand  a  style,  that  he  was,  without  effort,  as  supe- 
rior to  his  most  eminent  rivals  as  they  were  to  the  hum- 
blest ;  so  that  his  arrival  in  any  place  was  an  event  which 
drew  crowds  of  people,  who  went  to  satisfy  their  eyes, 
and  could  not  see  him  enough.  I  think  they  looked  at 
him  as  the  representative  of  the  American  Continent. 
He  was  there  in  his  Adamitic  capacity,  as  if  he  alone  of 
all  men  did  not  disappoint  the  eye  and  the  ear,  but  was 
a  fit  figure  in  the  landscape. 

I  remember  his  appearance  at  Bunker's  Hill.  There 
was  the  Monument,  and  here  was  Webster.  He  knew 
well  that  a  little  more  or  less  of  rhetoric  signified  noth- 
ing :  he  was  only  to  say  plain  and  equal  things,  —  grand 
things  if  he  had  them,  and,  if  he  had  them  not,  only  to 
abstain  from  saying  unfit  things,  —  and  the  whole  occa- 
sion was  answered  by  his  presence.  It  was  a  place  for 
behavior  more  than  for  speech,  and  Mr.  Webster  walked 
through  his  part  with  entire  success.  His  excellent  or- 
ganization, the  perfection  of  his  elocution  and  all  that 
thereto  belongs,  —  voice,  accent,  intonation,  attitude, 
manner,  —  we  shall  not  soon  find  again.  Then  he  was 
so  thoroughly  simple  and  wise  in  his  rhetoric  ;  he  saw 
through  his  matter,  hugged  his  fact  so  close,  went  to 
the  principle  or  essential,  and  never  indulged  in  a  weak 
flourish,  though  he  knew  perfectly  well  how  to  make 
such  exordiums,  episodes  and  perorations  as  might  give 
perspective  to  his  harangues  without  in  the  least  embar- 
rassing his  march  or  confounding  his  transitions.  In  his 
statement  things  lay  in  daylight ;  we  saw  them  in  order 


LECTURE   ON   THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW.      173 

as  they  were.  Though  he  knew  very  well  how  to  pre- 
sent his  own  personal  claims,  yet  in  his  argument  he 
was  intellectual,  —  stated  his  fact  pure  of  all  personal- 
ity, so  that  his  splendid  wrath,  when  his  eyes  became 
lamps,  was  the  wrath  of  the  fact  and  the  cause  he  stood 
for. 

His  power,  like  that  of  all  great  masters,  was  not  in 
excellent  parts,  but  was  total.  He  had  a  great  and  ev- 
erywhere equal  propriety.  He  worked  with  that  close- 
ness of  adhesion  to  the  matter  in  hand  which  a  joiner 
or  a  chemist  uses,  and  the  same  quiet  and  sure  feeling 
of  right  to  his  place  that  an  oak  or  a  mountain  have  to 
theirs.  After  all  his  talents  have  been  described,  there 
remains  that  perfect  propriety  which  animated  all  the 
details  of  the  action  or  speech  with  the  character  of  the 
whole,  so  that  his  beauties  of  detail  are  endless.  He 
seemed  born  for  the  bar,  born  for  the  senate,  and  took 
very  naturally  a  leading  part  in  large  private  and  in 
public  affairs  ;  for  his  head  distributed  things  in  their 
right  places,  and  what  he  saw  so  well  he  compelled 
other  people  to  see  also.  Great  is  the  privilege  of  elo- 
quence. What  gratitude  does  every  man  feel  to  him 
who  speaks  well  for  the  right,  —  who  translates  truth 
into  language  entirely  plain  and  clear  ! 

The  history  of  this  country  has  given  a  disastrous 
importance  to  the  defects  of  this  great  man's  mind. 
Whether  evil  influences  and  the  corruption  of  politics, 
or  whether  original  infirmity,  it  was  the  misfortune  of 
his  country  that  with  this  large  understanding  he  had 
not  what  is  better  than  intellect,  and  the  source  of  its 
health.  It  is  a  law  of  our  nature  that  great  thoughts 
come  from  the  heart.  If  his  moral  sensibility  had  been 
proportioned  to  the  force  of  his  understanding,  what 


174   LECTURE  ON  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. 

limits  could  have  been  set  to  his  genius  and  beneficent 
power  ?  But  he  wanted  that  deep  source  of  inspiration. 
Hence  a  sterility  of  thought,  the  want  of  generalization 
in  his  speeches,  and  the  curious  fact  that,  with  a  general 
ability  which  impresses  all  the  world,  there  is  not  a 
single  general  remark,  not  an  observation  on  life  and 
manners,  not  an  aphorism  that  can  pass  into  literature 
from  his  writings. 

Four  years  ago  to-night,  on  one  of  those  high  critical 
moments  in  history  when  great  issues  are  determined, 
when  the  powers  of  right  and  wrong  are  mustered  for 
conflict,  and  it  lies  with  one  man  to  give  a  casting  vote, 
—  Mr.  Webster,  most  unexpectedly,  threw  his  whole 
weight  on  the  side  of  Slavery,  and  caused  by  his  per- 
sonal and  official  authority  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill. 

It  is  remarked  of  the  Americans  that  they  value  dex- 
terity too  much,  and  honor  too  little  ;  that  they  think 
they  praise  a  man  more  by  saying  that  he  is  "  smart  " 
than  by  saying  that  he  is  right.  Whether  the  defect  be 
national  or  not,  it  is  the  defect  and  calamity  of  Mr. 
Webster  ;  and  it  is  so  far  true  of  his  countrymen, 
namely,  that  the  appeal  is  sure  to  be  made  to  his  phys- 
ical and  mental  ability  when  his  character  is  assailed. 
His  speeches  on  the  seventh  of  March,  and  at  Albany, 
at  Buffalo,  at  Syracuse  and  Boston  are  cited  in  jus- 
tification. And  Mr.  Webster's  literary  editor  believes 
that  it  was  his  wish  to  rest  his  fame  on  the  speech  of  the 
seventh  of  March.  Now,  though  I  have  my  own  opin- 
ions on  this  seventh  of  March  discourse  and  those  others, 
and  think  them  very  transparent  and  very  open  to  crit- 
icism,—  yet  the  secondary  merits  of  a  speech,  namely, 
its  logic,  its  illustrations,  its  points,  etc.,  are  not  here  in 


LECTURE  ON   THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW.      175 

question.  Nobody  doubts  that  Daniel  Webster  could 
make  a  good  speech.  Nobody  doubts  that  there  were 
good  and  plausible  things  to  be  said  on  the  part  of  the 
South.  But  this  is  not  a  question  of  ingenuity,  not  a 
question  of  syllogisms,  but  of  sides.  How  came  he  there  f 

There  are  always  texts  and  thoughts  and  arguments. 
But  it  is  the  genius  and  temper  of  the  man  which  de- 
cides whether  he  will  stand  for  right  or  for  might. 
Who  doubts  the  power  of  any  fluent  debater  to  defend 
either  of  our  political  parties,  or  any  client  in  our  courts  ? 
There  was  the  same  law  in  England  for  Jeffries  and 
Talbot  and  Yorke  to  read  slavery  out  of,  and  for  Lord 
Mansfield  to  read  freedom.  And  in  this  country  one 
sees  that  there  is  always  margin  enough  in  the  statute 
for  a  liberal  judge  to  read  one  way  and  a  servile  judge 
another. 

But  the  question  which  History  will  ask  is  broader. 
In  the  final  hour  when  he  was  forced  by  the  peremptory 
necessity  of  the  closing  armies  to  take  a  side,  —  did  he 
take  the  part  of  great  principles,  the  side  of  humanity 
and  justice,  or  the  side  of  abuse  and  oppression  and 
chaos  ? 

Mr.  Webster  decided  for  Slavery,  and  that,  when  the 
aspect  of  the  institution  was  no  longer  doubtful,  no 
longer  feeble  and  apologetic  and  proposing  soon  to  end 
itself,  but  when  it  was  strong,  aggressive,  and  threaten- 
ing an  illimitable  increase.  He  listened  to  State  rea- 
sons and  hopes,  and  left,  with  much  complacency  we 
are  told,  the  testament  of  his  speech  to  the  astonished 
State  of  Massachusetts,  vera  pro  gratis  •  a  ghastly  result 
of  all  those  years  of  experience  in  affairs,  this,  that 
there  was  nothing  better  for  the  foremost  American 
man  to  tell  his  countrymen  than  that  Slavery  was  now 


176      LECTURE   ON   THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE  LAW. 

at  that  strength  that  they  must  beat  down  their  con- 
science and  become  kidnappers  for  it. 

This  was  like  the  doleful  speech  falsely  ascribed  to 
the  patriot  Brutus  :  "  Virtue,  I  have  followed  thee 
through  life,  and  I  find  thee  but  a  shadow."  Here  was 
a  question  of  an  immoral  law  ;  a  question  agitated  for 
ages,  and  settled  always  in  the  same  way  by  every 
great  jurist,  that  an  immoral  law  cannot  be  valid. 
Cicero,  Grotius,  Coke,  Blackstone,  Burlamaqui,  Vattel, 
Burke,  Jefferson,  do  all  affirm  this,  and  I  cite  them, 
not  that  they  can  give  evidence  to  what  is  indisputable, 
but  because,  though  lawvers  and  practical  statesmen, 
the  habit  of  their  profession  did  not  hide  from  them 
that  this  truth  was  the  foundation  of  States. 

Here  was  the  question,  Are  you  for  man  and  for  the 
good  of  man  ;  or  are  you  for  the  hurt  and  harm  of 
man  ?  It  was  question  whether  man  shall  be  treated 
as  leather  ?  whether  the  Negroes  shall  be  as  the  Indi- 
ans were  in  Spanish  America,  a  piece  of  money  ? 
Whether  this  system,  which  is  a  kind  of  mill  or  factory 
for  converting  men  into  monkeys,  shall  be  upheld  and 
enlarged  ?  And  Mr.  Webster  and  the  country  went 
for  the  application  to  these  poor  men  of  quadruped 
law. 

People  were  expecting  a  totally  different  course  from 
Mr.  Webster.  If  any  man  had  in  that  hour  possessed 
the  weight  with  the  country  which  he  had  acquired,  he 
could  have  brought  the  whole  country  to  its  senses. 
But  not  a  moment's  pause  was  allowed.  Angry  parties 
went  from  bad  to  worse,  and  the  decision  of  Webster 
was  accompanied  with  everything  offensive  to  freedom 
and  good  morals.  There  was  something  like  an  attempt 
to  debauch  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  clergy  and  of 


LECTURE  ON  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW.   177 

the  youth.  Burke  said  he  "  would  pardon  something  to 
the  spirit  of  liberty."  But  by  Mr.  Webster  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  law  was  sharply  called  treason,  and  prose- 
cuted so.  He  told  the  people  at  Boston  "they  must  con- 
quer their  prejudices  ; "  that  "  agitation  of  the  subject  of 
Slavery  must  be  suppressed."  He  did  as  immoral  men 
usually  do,  made  very  low  bows  to  the  Christian  Church, 
and  went  all  through  the  Sunday  decorums  ;  but  when 
allusion  was  made  to  the  question  of  duty  and  the  sanc- 
tions of  morality,  he  very  frankly  said,  at  Albany,  "  Some 
higher  law,  something  existing  somewhere  between  here 
and  the  third  heaven,  —  I  do  not  know  where."  And 
if  the  reporters  say  true,  this  wretched  atheism  found 
some  laughter  in  the  company. 

I  said  I  had  never  in  my  life  up  to  this  time  suffered 
from  the  Slave  Institution.  Slavery  in  Virginia  or 
Carolina  was  like  Slavery  in  Africa  or  the  Feejees,  for 
me.  There  was  an  old  fugitive  law,  but  it  had  become 
or  was  fast  becoming  a  dead  letter,  and,  by  the  genius 
and  laws  of  Massachusetts,  inoperative.  The  new  Bill 
made  it  operative,  required  me  to  hunt  slaves,  and  it 
found  citizens  in  Massachusetts  willing  to  act  as  judges 
and  captors.  Moreover,  it  discloses  the  secret  of  the 
new  times,  that  Slavery  was  no  longer  mendicant,  but 
was  become  aggressive  and  dangerous. 

The  way  in  which  the  country  was  dragged  to  con- 
sent to  this,  and  the  disastrous  defection  (on  the  miser- 
able cry  of  Union)  of  the  men  of  letters,  of  the  colleges, 
of  educated  men,  nay,  of  some  preachers  of  religion, 
—  was  the  darkest  passage  in  the  history.  It  showed 
that  our  prosperity  had  hurt  us,  and  that  we  could  not 
be  shocked  by  crime.  It  showed  that  the  old  religion 
and  the  sense  of  the  right  had  faded  and  gone  out ; 
12 


178   LECTURE  ON  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. 

that  while  we  reckoned  ourselves  a  highly  cultivated 
nation,  our  bellies  had  run  away  with  our  brains,  and 
the  principles  of  culture  and  progress  did  not  exist. 

For  I  suppose  that  liberty  is  an  accurate  index,  in 
men  and  nations,  of  general  progress.  The  theory  of 
personal  liberty  must  always  appeal  to  the  most  refined 
communities  and  to  the  men  of  the  rarest  perception 
and  of  delicate  moral  sense.  For  there  are  rights 
which  rest  on  the  finest  sense  of  justice,  and,  with  every 
degree  of  civility,  it  will  be  more  truly  felt  and  defined. 
A  barbarous  tribe  of  good  stock  will,  by  means  of  their 
best  heads,  secure  substantial  liberty.  But  where  there 
is  any  weakness  in  a  race,  and  it  becomes  in  a  degree 
matter  of  concession  and  protection  from  their  stronger 
neighbors,  the  incompatibility  and  offeiisiveness  of  the 
wrong  will  of  course  be  most  evident  to  the  most  culti- 
vated. For  it  is, — is  it  not?  —  the  essence  of  cour- 
tesy, of  politeness,  of  religion,  of  love,  to  prefer  another, 
to  postpone  one's  self,  to  protect  another  from  one's 
self  ?  That  is  the  distinction  of  the  gentleman,  to  de- 
fend the  weak  and  redress  the  injured,  as  it  is  of  the 
savage  and  the  brutal  to  usurp  and  use  others. 

In  Massachusetts,  as  we  all  know,  there  has  always 
existed  a  predominant  conservative  spirit.  We  have 
more  money  and  value  of  every  kind  than  other  people, 
and  wish  to  keep  them.  The  plea  on  which  freedom 
was  resisted  was  Union.  I  went  to  certain  serious  men, 
who  had  a  little  more  reason  than  the  rest,  and  inquired 
why  they  took  this  part?  They  answered  that  they 
had  no  confidence  in  their  strength  to  resist  the  Demo- 
cratic party  ;  that  they  saw  plainly  that  all  was  going  to 
the  utmost  verge  of  license  ;  each  was  vying  with  his 
neighbor  to  lead  the  party,  by  proposing  the  worst 


LECTURE   ON   THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE  LAW.      179 

measure,  and  they  threw  themselves  on  the  extreme 
conservatism,  as  a  drag  on  the  wheel  :  that  they  knew 
Cuba  would  be  had,  and  Mexico  would  be  had,  and  they 
stood  stiffly  on  conservatism,  and  as  near  to  monarchy 
as  they  could,  only  to  moderate  the  velocity  with  which 
the  car  was  running  down  the  precipice.  In  short,  their 
theory  was  despair  ;  the  Whig  wisdom  was  only  re- 
prieve, a  waiting  to  be  last  devoured.  They  side  with 
Carolina,  or  with  Arkansas,  only  to  make  a  show  of 
Whig  strength,  wherewith  to  resist  a  little  longer  this 
general  ruin. 

I  have  a  respect  for  conservatism.  I  know  how 
deeply  founded  it  is  in  our  nature,  and  how  idle  are  all 
attempts  to  shake  ourselves  free  from  it.  WTe  are  all 
conservatives,  half  Whig,  half  Democrat,  in  our  es- 
sences :  and  might  as  well  try  to  jump  out  of  our  skins 
as  to  escape  from  our  Whiggery.  There  are  two  forces 
in  Nature,  by  whose  antagonism  we  exist ;  the  power  of 
Fate,  Fortune,  the  laws  of  the  world,  the  order  of 
things,  or  however  else  we  choose  to  phrase  it,  the  ma- 
terial necessities,  on  the  one  hand,  —  and  Will  or  Duty 
or  Freedom  on  the  other. 

May  and  Must,  and  the  sense  of  right  and  duty,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  material  necessities  on  the  other  : 
May  and  Must.  In  vulgar  politics  the  Whig  goes  for 
what  has  been,  for  the  old  necessities,  —  the  Musts. 
The  reformer  goes  for  the  Better,  for  the  ideal  good,  for 
the  Mays.  But  each  of  these  parties  must  of  necessity 
take  in,  in  some  measure,  the  principles  of  the  other. 
Each  wishes  to  cover  the  whole  ground  ;  to  hold  fast 
and  to  advance.  Only,  one  lays  the  emphasis  on  keep- 
ing, and  the  other  on  advancing.  I  too  think  the  musts 
are  a  safe  company  to  follow,  and  even  agreeable.  But 


180   LECTURE  OX  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. 

if  we  are  Whigs,  let  us  be  Whigs  of  nature  and  sci- 
ence, and  so  for  all  the  necessities.  Let  us  know  that 
over  and  above  all  the  musts  of  poverty  and  appetite,  is 
the  instinct  of  man  to  rise,  and  the  instinct  to  love  and 
help  his  brother. 

Now,  Gentlemen,  I  think  we  have  in  this  hour  in- 
struction again  in  the  simplest  lesson.  Events  roll, 
millions  of  men  are  engaged,  and  the  result  is  the  en- 
forcing of  some  of  those  first  commandments  which  we 
heard  in  the  nursery.  We  never  get  beyond  our  first 
lesson,  for,  really,  the  world  exists,  as  I  understand  it, 
to  teach  the  science  of  liberty,  which  begins  with  liberty 
from  fear. 

The  event?  of  this  month  are  teaching  one  thing  plain 
and  clear,  the  worthlessness  of  good  tools  to  bad  work- 
men ;  that  official  papers  are  of  no  use  ;  resolutions  of 
public  meetings,  platforms  of  conventions,  no,  nor  laws, 
nor  constitutions,  any  more.  These  are  all  declaratory 
of  the  will  of  the  moment,  and  are  passed  with  more 
levity  and  on  grounds  far  less  honorable  than  ordinary 
business  transactions  of  the  street. 

You  relied  on  the  constitution.  It  has  not  the  word 
slave  in  it ;  and  very  good  argument  has  shown  that  it 
would  not  warrant  the  crimes  that  are  done  under  it  ; 
that,  with  provisions  so  vague  for  an  object  not  named, 
and  which  could  not  be  availed  of  to  claim  a  barrel  of 
sugar  or  a  barrel  of  corn,  —  the  robbing  of  a  man  and 
of  all  his  posterity  is  effected.  You  relied  on  the  Su- 
preme Court.  The  law  was  right,  excellent  law  for  the 
lambs.  But  what  if  unhappily  the  judges  were  chosen 
from  the  wolves,  and  give  to  all  the  law  a  wolfish  inter- 
pretation ?  You  relied  on  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
That  is  ridden  over.  You  relied  on  State  sovereignty 


LECTURE   ON    THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW.      181 

in  the  Free  States  to  protect  their  citizens.  They  are 
driven  with  contempt  out  of  the  courts  and  out  of  the 
territory  of  the  Slave  States,  —  if  they  are  so  happy  as 
to  get  out  with  their  lives,  —  and  now  you  relied  on 
these  dismal  guaranties  infamously  made  in  1850  ;  and, 
before  the  body  of  Webster  is  yet  crumbled,  it  is  found 
that  they  have  crumbled.  This  eternal  monument  of 
his  fame  and  of  the  Union  is  rotten  in  four  years.  They 
are  no  guaranty  to  the  Free  States.  They  are  a  guar- 
anty to  the  Slave  States  that,  as  they  have  hitherto  met 
with  no  repulse,  they  shall  meet  with  none. 

I  fear  there  is  no  reliance  to  be  put  on  any  kind  or 
form  of  covenant,  no,  not  on  sacred  forms,  none  on 
churches,  none  on  Bibles.  For  one  would  have  said  that 
a  Christian  would  not  keep  slaves;  —  but  the  Christians 
keep  slaves.  Of  course  they  will  not  dare  to  read  the 
Bible  ?  Won't  they  ?  They  quote  the  Bible,  quote 
Paul,  quote  Christ  to  justify  slavery.  If  slavery  is 
good,  then  is  lying,  theft,  arson,  homicide,  each  and  all 
good,  and  to  be  maintained  by  Union  societies. 

These  things  show  that  no  forms,  neither  constitu- 
tions, nor  laws,  nor  covenants,  nor  churches,  nor  Bibles, 
are  of  any  use  in  themselves.  The  Devil  nestles  com- 
fortably into  them  all.  There  is  no  help  but  in  the 
head  and  heart  and  hamstrings  of  a  man.  Covenants 
are  of  no  use  without  honest  men  to  keep  them  ;  laws 
of  none,  but  with  loyal  citizens  to  obey  them.  To  in- 
terpret Christ  it  needs  Christ  in  the  heart.  The  teach- 
ings of  the  Spirit  can  be  apprehended  only  by  the  same 
spirit  that  gave  them  forth.  To  make  good  the  cause 
of  Freedom,  you  must  draw  off  from  all  foolish  trust 
in  others.  You  must  be  citadels  and  warriors,  your- 
selves, declarations  of  Independence,  the  charter,  the^ 


182   LECTURE  ON  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. 

battle  and  the  victory.  Cromwell  said,  "  We  can  only 
resist  the  superior  training  of  the  King's  soldiers,  by 
enlisting  godly  men."  And  no  man  has  a  right  to 
hope  that  the  laws  of  New  York  will  defend  him  from 
the  contamination  of  slaves  another  day  until  he  has 
made  up  his  mind  that  he  will  not  owe  his  protection 
to  the  laws  of  New  York,  but  to  his  own  sense  and 
spirit.  Then  he  protects  New  York.  He  only  who  is 
able  to  stand  alone  is  qualified  for  society.  And  that  I 
understand  to  be  the  end  for  which  a  soul  exists  in  this 
world,  —  to  be  himself  the  counterbalance  of  all  false- 
hood and  all  wrong.  "  The  army  of  untight  is  en- 
camped from  pole  to  pole,  but  the  road  of  victory  is 
known  to  the  just."  Everything  may  be  taken  away  ; 
he  may  be  poor,  he  may  be  houseless,  yet  he  will  know 
out  of  his  arms  to  make  a  pillow,  and  out  of  his  breast 
a  bolster.  Why  have  the  minority  no  influence  ?  Be- 
cause they  have  not  a  real  minority  of  one. 

I  conceive  that  thus  to  detach  a  man  and  make  him 
feel  that  he  is  to  owe  all  to  himself,  is  the  way  to  make 
him  strong  and  rich  ;  and  here  the  optimist  must  find, 
if  anywhere,  the  benefit  of  Slavery.  We  have  many 
teachers  ;  we  are  in  this  world  for  culture,  to  be  in- 
structed in  realities,  in  the  laws  of  moral  and  intelligent 
nature  ;  and  our  education  is  not  conducted  by  toys  and 
luxuries,  but  by  austere  and  rugged  masters,  by  Pov- 
erty, Solitude,  Passions,  War,  Slavery  ;  to  know  that 
Paradise  is  under  the  shadow  of  swords  ;  that  divine 
sentiments  which  are  always  soliciting  us  are  breathed 
into  us  from  on  high,  and  are  an  offset  to  a  Universe 
of  suffering  and  crime  ;  that  self-reliance,  the  height 
and  perfection  of  man,  is  reliance  on  God.  The  insight 
of  the  religious  sentiment  will  disclose  to  him  uuex- 


LECTURE    ON    THE   FUGITIVE    SLAVE   LAW.      183 

pected  aids  in  the  nature  of  things.  The  Persian  Saadi 
said,  "  Beware  of  hurting  the  orphan.  When  the  or- 
phan sets  a-crying,  the  throne  of  the  Almighty  is  rocked 
from  side  to  side." 

Whenever  a  man  has  come  to  this  mind,  that  there  is 
no  Church  for  him  but  his  believing  prayer  ;  no  Consti- 
tution but  his  dealing  well  and  justly  with  his  neigh- 
bor ;  no  liberty  but  his  invincible  will  to  do  right,  — 
then  certain  aids  and  allies  will  promptly  appear  :  for 
the  constitution  of  the  Universe  is  on  his  side.  It  is  of 
no  use  to  vote  down  gravitation  or  morals.  What  is 
useful  will  last,  whilst  that  which  is  hurtful  to  the  world 
will  sink  beneath  all  the  opposing  forces  which  it  must 
exasperate.  The  terror  which  the  Marseillaise  struck 
into  oppression,  it  thunders  again  to-day  ; 

"Tout  est  soldat  pour  voua  combattre." 

Everything  that  can  walk  turns  soldier  to  fight  you 
down.  The  end  for  which  man  was  made  is  not  crime 
in  any  form,  and  a  man  cannot  steal  without  incurring 
the  penalties  of  the  thief,  though  all  the  legislatures 
vote  that  it  is  virtuous,  and  though  there  be  a  general 
conspiracy  among  scholars  and  official  persons  to  hold 
him  up,  and  to  say,  "  Nothing  is  good  but  stealing."  A 
man  who  commits  a  crime  defeats  the  end  of  his  exist- 
ence. He  was  created  for  benefit,  and  he  exists  for 
harm  ;  and  as  well-doing  makes  power  and  wisdom, 
ill-doing  takes  them  away.  A  man  who  steals  another 
man's  labor,  steals  away  his  own  faculties  ;  his  integ- 
rity, his  humanity  is  flowing  away  from  him.  The  habit 
of  oppression  cuts  out  the  moral  eyes,  and,  though  the 
intellect  goes  on  stimulating  the  moral  as  before,  its 
sanity  is  gradually  destroyed.  It  takes  away  the  pre- 
sentiments. 


184   LECTURE  ON  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. 

I  suppose  in  general  this  is  allowed,  that  if  you  have 
a  nice  question  of  right  and  wrong,  you  would  not  go 
with  it  to  Louis  Napoleon,  or  to  a  political  hack  ;  or 
to  a  slave-driver.  The  habit  of  mind  of  traders  in 
power  would  not  be  esteemed  favorable  to  delicate 
moral  perception.  American  slavery  affords  no  excep- 
tion to  this  rule.  No  excess  of  good-nature  or  of  ten- 
derness in  individuals  has  been  able  to  give  a  new  char- 
acter to  the  system,  to  tear  down  the  whipping-house. 
The  plea  that  the  negro  is  an  inferior  race  sounds  very 
oddly  in  my  ear  in  the  mouth  of  a  slave-holder.  "  The 
masters  of  slaves  seem  generally  anxious  to  prove  that 
they  are  not  of  a  race  superior  in  any  noble  quality  to 
the  meanest  of  their  bondmen."  And  indeed  when 
the  Southerner  points  to  the  anatomy  of  the  negro,  and 
talks  of  chimpanzee,  —  I  recall  Montesquieu's  remark, 
"  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  negroes  are  men,  lest  it 
should  turn  out  that  whites  are  not." 

Slavery  is  disheartening  ;  but  Nature  is  not  so  help- 
less but  it  can  rid  itself  at  last  of  every  wrong.  But 
the  spasms  of  Nature  are  centuries  and  ages,  and  will 
tax  the  faith  of  short-lived  men.  Slowly,  slowly  the 
Avenger  comes,  but  comes  surely.  The  proverbs  of  the 
nations  affirm  these  delays,  but  affirm  the  arrival.  They 
say,  "  God  may  consent,  but  not  forever."  The  delay 
of  the  Divine  Justice  —  this  was  the  meaning  and  soul 
of  the  Greek  Tragedy  ;  this  the  soul  of  their  relig- 
ion. "  There  has  come,  too,  one  to  whom  lurking  war- 
fare is  dear,  Retribution,  with  a  soul  full  of  wiles  ;  a 
violator  of  hospitality  ;  guileful  without  the  guilt  of 
guile  ;  limping,  late  in  her  arrival."  They  said  of  the 
happiness  of  the  unjust,  that  "at  its  close  it  begets 
itself  an  offspring  and  does  not  die  childless,  and  in- 


LECTURR  ON  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW.   185 

stead  of  good  fortune,  there  sprouts  forth  for  posterity 
ever-ravening  calamity  : " 

"For  evil  word  shall  evil  word  be  said, 
For  murder-stroke  a  murder-stroke  be  paid. 
Who  smites  must  smart." 

These  delays,  you  see  them  now  in  the  temper  of  the 
times.  The  national  spirit  in  this  country  is  so  drowsy, 
pre-occupied  with  interest,  deaf  to  principle.  The  An- 
glo-Saxon race  is  proud  and  strong  and  selfish.  They 
believe  only  in  Anglo-Saxons.  In  1825  Greece  found 
America  deaf,  Poland  found  America  deaf,  Italy  and 
Hungary  found  her  deaf.  England  maintains  trade, 
not  liberty  ;  stands  against  Greece  ;  against  Hungary  ; 
against  Schleswig  Holstein  ;  against  the  French  Repub- 
lic, whilst  it  was  a  republic. 

To  faint  hearts  the  times  offer  no  invitation,  and 
torpor  exists  here  throughout  the  active  classes  on  the 
subject  of  domestic  slavery  and  its  appalling  aggres- 
sions. Yes,  that  is  the  stern  edict  of  Providence,  that 
liberty  shall  be  no  hasty  fruit,  but  that  event  on  event, 
population  on  population,  age  on  age,  shall  cast  itself 
into  the  opposite  scale,  and  not  until  liberty  has  slowly 
accumulated  weight  enough  to  countervail  and  prepon- 
derate against  all  this,  can  the  sufficient  recoil  come. 
All  the  great  cities,  all  the  refined  circles,  all  the  states- 
men, Guizot,  Palmerston,  Webster,  Calhoun,  are  sure 
to  be  found  befriending  liberty  with  their  words,  ana 
crushing  it  with  their  votes.  Liberty  is  never  cheap. 
It  is  made  difficult,  because  freedom  is  the  accomplish- 
ment and  perfectness  of  man.  He  is  a  finished  man  ; 
earning  and  bestowing  good  ;  equal  to  the  world  ;  at 
home  in  nature  and  dignifying  that  ;  the  sun  does  not 
see  anything  nobler,  and  has  nothing  to  teach  him. 


186      LECTURE   ON    THE    FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW. 

Therefore  mountains  of  difficulty  must  be  surmounted, 
stern  trials  met,  wiles  of  seduction,  dangers,  healed  by 
a  quarantine  of  calamities  to  measure  his  strength  be- 
fore he  dare  say,  I  am  fvee. 

Whilst  the  inconsistency  of  slavery  with  the  princi- 
ples on  which  the  world  is  built  guarantees  its  downfall, 
I  own  that  the  patience  it  requires  is  almost  too  sub- 
lime for  mortals,  and  seems  to  demand  of  us  more  than 
mere  hoping.  And  when  one  sees  how  fast  the  rot 
spreads,  —  it  is  growing  serious  —  I  think  we  demand 
of  superior  men  that  they  be  superior  in  this,  —  that 
the  mind  and  the  virtue  shall  give  their  verdict  in  their 
day,  and  accelerate  so  far  the  progress  of  civilization. 
Possession  is  sure  to  throw  its  stupid  strength  for  ex- 
isting power,  and  appetite  and  ambition  will  go  for 
that.  Let  the  aid  of  virtue,  intelligence  and  education 
be  cast  where  they  rightfully  belong.  They  are  organ- 
ically ours.  Let  them  be  loyal  to  their  own.  I  wish 
to  see  the  instructed  class  here  know  their  own  flag, 
and  not  fire  on  their  comrades.  We  should  not  forgive 
the  clergy  for  taking  on  every  issue  the  immoral  side  ; 
nor  the  Bench,  if  it  put  itself  on  the  side  of  the  cul- 
prit ;  nor  the  Government,  if  it  sustain  the  mob  against 
the  laws. 

It  is  a  potent  support  and  ally  to  a  brave  man  stand- 
ing single,  or  with  a  few,  for  the  right,  and  out-voted 
and  ostracized,  to  know  that  better  men  in  other  parts 
of  the  country  appreciate  the  service  and  will  rightly 
report  him  to  his  own  and  the  next  age.  Without  this 
assurance,  he  will  sooner  sink.  He  may  well  say,  If 
my  countrymen  do  not  care  to  be  defended,  I  too  will 
decline  the  controversy,  from  which  I  only  reap  invec- 
tives and  hatred.  Yet  the  lovers  of  liberty  may  with 


LECTURE   ON   THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW.      187 

reason  tax  the  coldness  and  indifferentism  of  scholars 
and  literary  men.  They  are  lovers  of  liberty  in  Greece 
and  Rome  and  in  the  English  Commonwealth,  but  they 
are  lukewarm  lovers  of  the  liberty  of  America  in  1854. 
The  Universities  are  not,  as  in  Hobbes's  time,  "  the  core 
of  rebellion,"  no,  but  the  seat  of  inertness.  They 
have  forgotten  their  allegiance  to  the  Muse,  and  grown 
worldly  and  political.  I  listened,  lately,  on  one  of  those 
occasions  when  the  University  chooses  one  of  its  distin- 
guished sons  returning  from  the  political  arena,  believ- 
ing that  Senators  and  Statesmen  would  be  glad  to  throw 
off  the  harness  and  to  dip  again  in  the  Castalian  pools. 
But  if  audiences  forget  themselves,  statesmen  do  not. 
The  low  bows  to  all  the  crockery  gods  of  the  day  were 
duly  made  :  — only  in  one  part  of  the  discourse  the  orator 
allowed  to  transpire  rather  against  his  will  a  little  sober 
sense.  It  was  this.  '  I  am  as  you  see  a  man  virtuously 
inclined,  and  only  corrupted  by  my  profession  of  poli- 
tics. I  should  prefer  the  right  side.  You,  gentlemen 
of  these  literary  and  scientific  schools,  and  the  impor- 
tant class  you  represent,  have  the  power  to  make  your 
verdict  clear  and  prevailing.  Had  you  done  so,  you 
would  have  found  me  its  glad  organ  and  champion. 
Abstractly,  I  should  have  preferred  that  side.  But  you 
have  not  done  it.  You  have  not  spoken  out.  You  have 
failed  to  arm  me.  I  can  only  deal  with  masses  as  I 
find  them.  Abstractions  are  not  for  me.  I  go  then 
for  such  parties  and  opinions  as  have  provided  me  with 
a  working  apparatus.  I  give  you  my  word,  not  without 
regret,  that  I  was  first  for  you  ;  and  though  I  am  now 
to  deny  and  condemn  you,  you  see  it  is  not  my  will  but 
the  party  necessity.'  Having  made  this  manifesto  and 
professed  his  adoration  for  liberty  in  the  time  of  his 


188      LECTURE  ON   THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW. 

grandfathers,  he  proceeded  with  his  work  of  denounc- 
ing freedom  and  freemen  at  the  present  day,  much  in 
the  tone  and  spirit  in  which  Lord  Bacon  prosecuted  his 
benefactor  Essex.  He  denounced  every  name  and  as- 
pect under  which  liberty  and  progress  dare  show  them- 
selves in  this  age  and  country,  but  with  a  lingering 
conscience  which  qualified  each  sentence  with  a  recom- 
mendation to  mercy. 

But  I  put  it  to  every  noble  and  generous  spirit,  to 
every  poetic,  every  heroic,  every  religious  heart,  that 
not  so  is  our  learning,  our  education,  our  poetry,  our 
worship  to  be  declared.  Liberty  is  aggressive,  Liberty 
is  the  Crusade  of  all  brave  and  conscientious  men,  the 
Epic  Poetry,  the  new  religion,  the  chivalry  of  all  gen- 
tlemen. This  is  the  oppressed  Lady  whom  true  knights 
on  their  oath  and  honor  must  rescue  and  save. 

Now  at  last  we  are  disenchanted  and  shall  have  no 
more  false  hopes.  I  respect  the  Anti-Slavery  Society. 
It  is  the  Cassandra  that  has  foretold  all  that  has  be- 
fallen, fact  for  fact,  years  ago;  foretold  all,  and  no  man 
laid  it  to  heart.  It  seemed,  as  the  Turks  say,  "  Fate 
makes  that  a  man  should  not  believe  his  own  eyes." 
But  the  Fugitive  Law  did  much  to  unglue  the  eyes  of 
men,  and  now  the  Nebraska  Bill  leaves  us  staring.  The 
Anti-Slavery  Society  will  add  many  members  this  year. 
The  Whig  Party  will  join  it  :  the  Democrats  will  join 
it.  The  population  of  the  Free  States  will  join  it.  I 
doubt  not,  at  last,  the  Slave  States  will  join  it.  But  be 
that  sooner  or  later,  and  whoever  comes  or  stays  away, 
I  hope  we  have  reached  the  end  of  our  unbelief,  have 
come  to  a  belief  that  there  is  a  divine  Providence  in  the 
world,  which  will  not  save  us  but  through  our  own  co- 
operation. 


THE  ASSAULT  UPON  MR.  SUMNER. 

SPEECH  AT    A   MEETING   OF    THE  CITIZENS    IN   THE  TOWN 
HALL,  IN   CONCORD,   MAY  20,  1850. 


THE  ASSAULT  UPON  MR.  SUMNER. 


MR.  CHAIRMAN  :  —  I  sympathize  heartily  with  the 
spirit  of  the  resolutions.  The  events  of  the  last  few 
years  and  months  and  days  have  taught  us  the  lessons  of 
centuries.  I  do  not  see  how  a  barbarous  community  and 
a  civilized  community  can  constitute  one  State.  I  think 
we  must  get  rid  of  slavery,  or  we  must  get  rid  of  free- 
dom. Life  has  not  parity  of  value  in  the  free  state  and 
in  the  slave  state.  In  one,  it  is  adorned  with  education, 
with  skilful  labor,  with  arts,  with  long  prospective  in- 
terests, with  sacred  family  ties,  with  honor  and  justice. 
In  the  other,  life  is  a  fever  ;  man  is  an  animal,  given  to 
pleasure,  frivolous,  irritable,  spending  his  days  in  hunt- 
ing and  practising  with  deadly  weapons  to  defend  him- 
self against  his  slaves  and  against  his  companions  brought 
up  in  the  same  idle  and  dangerous  way.  Such  people 
live  for  the  moment,  they  have  properly  no  future,  and 
readily  risk  on  every  passion  a  life  which  is  of  small 
value  to  themselves  or  to  others.  Many  years  ago,  when 
Mr.  Webster  was  challenged  in  Washington  to  a  duel 
by  one  of  these  madcaps,  his  friends  came  forward  with 
prompt  good  sense  and  said  such  a  thing  was  not  to  be 
thought  of  ;  Mr.  Webster's  life  was  the  property  of  his 
friends  and  of  the  whole  country,  and  was  not  to  be 
risked  on  the  turn  of  a  vagabond's  ball.  Life  and  life 


192  SPEECH    ON   THE 

are  incommensurate.  The  whole  State  of  South  Caro- 
lina doss  not  now  offer  one  or  any  number  of  persons 
who  are  to  be  weighed  for  a  moment  in  the  scale  with 
such  a  person  as  the  meanest  of  them  all  has  now  struck 
down.  The  very  conditions  of  the  game  must  always 
bo,  —  the  worst  life  staked  against  the  best.  It  is  the 
bjst  whom  they  desire  to  kill.  It  is  only  when  they 
cannot  answer  your  reasons,  that  they  wish  to  knock 
you  down.  If,  therefore,  Massachusetts  could  send  to 
the  Senate  a  better  man  than  Mr.  Sumner,  his  death 
would  be  only  so  much  the  more  quick  and  certain. 
Now,  as  men's  bodily  strength,  or  skill  with  knives  and 
guns,  is  not  usually  in  proportion  to  their  knowledge 
and  mother-wit,  but  oftener  in  the  inverse  ratio,  it  will 
only  do  to  send  foolish  persons  to  Washington,  if  you 
wish  them  to  be  safe. 

The  outrage  is  the  more  shocking  from  the  singu- 
larly pure  character  of  its  victim.  Mr.  Stunner's  posi- 
tion is.  exceptional  in  its  honor.  He  had  not  taken  his 
degrees  in  the  caucus  and  in  hack  politics.  It  is  noto- 
rious that,  in  the  long  time  when  his  election  was  pend- 
ing, he  refused  to  take  a  single  step  to  secure  it.  He 
would  not  so  much  as  go  up  to  the  State  House  to  shake 
hands  with  tins  or  that  person  whose  good  will  was 
reckoned  important  by  his  friends.  He  was  elected.  It 
was  a  homage  to  cltaracter  and  talent.  In  Congress,  he 
did  not  rush  into  party  position.  He  sat  long  silent  and 
studious.  His  friends,  I  remember,  were  told  that  they 
would  find  Sumner  a  man  of  the  world  like  the  rest  ; 
'  't  is  quite  impossible  to  be  at  Washington  and  not 
bend  ;  he  will  bend  as  the  rest  have  done.'  Well,  he 
did  not  bend.  He  took  his  position  and  kept  it.  He 
meekly  bore  the  cold  shoulder  from  some  of  his  Xew 


ASSAULT    UPON   MR.    SUMNEB.  193 

England  colleagues,  the  hatred  of  his  enemies,  the  pity 
of  the  indifferent,  cheered  by  the  love  and  respect  of 
good  men  with  whom  he  acted  ;  and  has  stood  for  the 
North,  a  little  in  advance  of  all  the  North,  and  therefore 
without  adequate  support.  He  has  never  faltered  in 
his  maintenance  of  justice  and  freedom.  He  has  gone 
beyond  the  large  expectation  of  his  friends  in  his  in- 
creasing ability  and  his  manlier  tone.  I  have  heard 
that  some  of  his  political  friends  tax  him  with  indo- 
lence or  negligence  in  refusing  to  make  electioneering 
speeches,  or  otherwise  to  bear  his  part  in  the  labor 
which  party -organization,  requires.  I  say  it  to  his 
honor.  But  more  to  his  honor  are  the  faults  which  his 
enemies  lay  to  his  charge.  I  think,  Sir,  if  Mr.  Sumner 
had  any  vices,  we  should  be  likely  to  hear  of  them.  They 
have  fastened  their  eyes  like  microscopes  for  five  years 
on  every  act,  word,  manner  and  movement,  to  find  a 
flaw,  —  and  with  what  result  ?  His  opponents  accuse 
him  neither  of  drunkenness,  nor  debauchery,  nor  job, 
nor  speculation,  nor  rapacity,  nor  personal  aims  of  any 
kind.  No  ;  but  with  what  ?  Why,  beyond  this  charge, 
which  it  is  impossible  was  ever  sincerely  made,  that  he 
broke  over  the  proprieties  of  debate,  I  find  him  accused 
of  publishing  his  opinion  of  the  Nebraska  conspiracy  in 
a  letter  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  with  dis- 
courtesy. Then,  that  he  is  an  abolitionist  ;  as  if  every 
sane  human  being  were  not  an  abolitionist,  or  a  believer 
that  all  men  should  be  free.  And  the  third  crime  he 
stands  charged  with,  is,  that  his  speeches  were  written 
before  they  were  spoken  ;  which  of  course  must  be  true 
in  Sumner's  case,  as  it  was  true  of  Webster,  of  Adams, 
of  Calhoun,  of  Burke,  of  Chatham,  of  Demosthenes  ;  of 
every  first-rate  speaker  that  ever  lived.  It  is  the  high 
13 


194  ASSAULT   UPON   MR.   SUMNEB. 

compliment  he  pays  to  the  intelligence  of  the  Senate 
and  of  the  country.  When  the  same  reproach  was  cast 
on  the  first  orator  of  ancient  times  by  some  caviller  of 
his  day,  he  said,  "  I  should  be  ashamed  to  come  with 
one  nnconsidered  word  before  such  an  assembly."  Mr. 
Chairman,  when  I  think  of  these  most  small  faults  as 
the  worst  which  party  hatred  could  allege,  I  think  I 
may  borrow  the  language  which  Bishop  Burnet  applied 
to  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  and  say  that  Charles  Sumner  "  has 
the  whitest  soul  I  ever  knew." 

Well,  sir,  this  noble  head,  so  comely  and  so  wise, 
must  be  the  target  for  a  pair  of  bullies  to  beat  with 
clubs.  The  murderer's  brand  shall  stamp  their  fore- 
heads wherever  they  may  wander  in  the  earth.  But  I 
wish,  sir,  that  the  high  respects  of  this  meeting  shall  be 
expressed  to  Mr.  Sumner  ;  that  a  copy  of  the  resolutions 
that  have  been  read  may  be  forwarded  to  him.  I  wish 
that  he  may  know  the  shudder  of  terror  which  ran 
through  all  this  community  on  the  first  tidings  of  this 
brutal  attack.  Let  him  hear  that  every  man  of  worth 
in  New  England  loves  his  virtues  ;  that  every  mother 
thinks  of  him  as  the  protector  of  families  ;  that  every 
friend  of^  freedom  thinks  him  the  friend  of  freedom. 
And  if  our  arms  at  this  distance  cannot  defend  him 
from  assassins,  we  confide  the  defence  of  a  life  so  pre- 
cious, to  all  honorable  men  and  true  patriots,  and  to  the 
Almighty  Maker  of  men. 


SPEECH 

AT  THE  KANSAS  RELIEF   MEETING  IN  CAMBRIDGE, 
WEDNESDAY  EVENING,   SEPTEMBER  10,  1856. 


SPEECH  OX  AFFAIRS  IN  KANSAS. 


I  REGRET,  with  all  this  company,  the  absence  of  Mr. 
Whitman  of  Kansas,  whose  narrative  was  to  constitute 
the  interest  of  this  meeting.  Mr.  Whitman  is  not  here  ; 
but  knowing,  as  we  all  do,  why  he  is  not,  what  duties 
kept  him  at  home,  he  is  more  than  present.  His  vacant 
chair  speaks  for  him.  For  quite  other  reasons,  I  had 
been  wiser  to  have  stayed  at  home,  unskilled  as  I  am  to 
address  a  political  meeting,  but  it  is  impossible  for  the 
most  recluse  to  extricate  himself  from  the  questions  of 
the  times. 

There  is  this  peculiarity  about  the  case  of  Kansas, 
that  all  the  right  is  on  one  side.  We  hear  the  screams 
of  hunted  wives  and  children  answered  by  the  howl  of 
the  butchers.  The  testimony  of  the  telegraphs  from 
St.  Louis  and  the  border  confirm  the  worst  details.  The 
printed  letters  of  the  border  ruffians  avow  the  facts. 
When  pressed  to  look  at  the  cause  of  the  mischief  in 
the  Kansas  laws,  the  President  falters  and  declines  the 
discussion  ;  but  his  supporters  in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Cass, 
Mr.  Geyer,  Mr.  Hunter,  speak  out,  and  declare  the  in- 
tolerable atrocity  of  the  code.  It  is  a  maxim  that  all 
party  spirit  produces  the  incapacity  to  receive  natural 
impressions  from  facts  ;  and  our  recent  political  history 
has  abundantly  borne  out  the  maxim.  But  these  de- 
tails that  have  come  from  Kansas  are  so  horrible,  that 


198          SPEECH   ON  AFFAIRS   IN   KANSAS. 

the  hostile  press  have  but  one  word  in  reply,  namely, 
that  it  is  all  exaggeration,  't  is  an  Abolition  lie.  Do  the 
Committee  of  Investigation  say  that  the  outrages  have 
been  overstated  ?  Does  their  dismal  catalogue  of  pri- 
vate tragedies  show  it  ?  Do  the  private  letters  ?  Is  it 
an  exaggeration,  that  Mr.  Hopps  of  Somerville,  Mr. 
Hoyt  of  Deerfield,  Mr.  Jennison  of  Groton,  Mr.  Phillips 
of  Berkshire,  have  been  murdered  ?  That  Mr.  Robin- 
son of  Fitchburg  has  been  imprisoned  ?  Rev.  Mr.  Nute 
of  Springfield  seized,  and  up  to  this  time  we  have  no 
tidings  of  his  fate  ? 

In  these  calamities  under  which  they  suffer,  and  the 
worse  which  threaten  them,  the  people  of  Kansas  ask 
for  bread,  clothes,  arms  and  men,  to  save  them  alive, 
and  enable  them  to  stand  against  these  enemies  of  the 
human  race.  They  have  ^a  right  to  be  helped,  for  they 
have  helped  themselves. 

This  aid  must  be  sent,  and  this  is  not  to  be  doled  out 
as  an  ordinary  charity  ;  but  bestowed  up  to  the  magni- 
tude of  the  want,  and,  as  has  been  elsewhere  said,  "  on 
the  scale  of  a  national  action."  I  think  we  are  to  give 
largely,  lavishly,  to  these  men.  And  we  must  prepare 
to  do  it.  We  must  learn  to  do  with  less,  live  in  a 
smaller  tenement,  sell  our  apple-trees,  our  acres,  our 
pleasant  houses.  I  know  people  who  are  making  haste 
to  reduce  their  expenses  and  pay  their  debts,  not  with  a 
view  to  new  accumulations,  but  in  preparation  to  save 
and  earn  for  the  benefit  of  the  Kansas  emigrants. 

We  must  have  aid  from  individuals,  —  we  must  also 
have  aid  from  the  State.  I  know  that  the  last  Legis- 
lature refused  that  aid.  I  know  that  lawyers  hesitate 
on  technical  grounds,  and  wonder  what  method  of  re- 
lief the  Legislature  will  apply.  But  I  submit  that,  in 


SPEECH   ON   AFFAIRS   IN   KANSAS.  199 

a  case  like  this,  where  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  legal 
voters  here,  have  emigrated  to  national  territory  under 
the  sanction  of  every  law,  and  are  then  set  on  by  high- 
waymen, driven  from  their  new  homes,  pillaged,  and 
numbers  of  them  killed  and  scalped,  and  the  whole 
world  knows  that  this  is  no  accidental  brawl,  but  a 
S}-stematic  war  to  the  knife,  and  in  defiance  of  all  laws 
and  liberties,  I  submit  that  the  Governor  and  Legisla- 
ture should  neither  slumber  nor  sleep  till  they  have 
found  out  how  to  send  effectual  aid  and  comfort  to  these 
poor  farmers,  or  else  should  resign  their  seats  to  those 
who  can.  But  first  let  them  hang  the  halls  of  the  State 
House  with  black  crape,  and  order  funeral  service  to  be 
said  there  for  the  citizens  whom  they  were  unable  to 
defend. 

We  stick  at  the  technical  difficulties.  I  think  there 
never  was  a  people  so  choked  and  stultified  by  forms. 
We  adore  the  forms  of  law,  instead  of  making  them 
vehicles  of  wisdom  and  justice.  I  like  the  primary  as- 
sembly. I  own  I  have  little  esteem  for  governments. 
I  esteem  them  only  good  in  the  moment  when  they  are 
established.  I  set  the  private  man  first.  He  only  who 
is  able  to  stand  alone  is  qualified  to  be  a  citizen.  Next 
to  the  private  man,  I  value  the  primary  assembly,  met 
to  watch  the  government  and  to  correct  it.  That  is  the 
theory  of  the  American  State,  that  it  exists  to  execute 
the  will  of  the  citizens,  is  always  responsible  to  them, 
and  is  always  to  be  changed  when  it  does  not.  First, 
the  private  citizen,  then  the  primary  assembly,  and  the 
government  last. 

In  thi's  country  for  the  last  few  years  the  government 
has  been  the  chief  obstruction  to  the  common  weal. 
Who  doubts  that  Kansas  would  have  been  very  well 


200         SPEECH   ON   AFFAIRS   IN   KANSAS. 

settled,  if  the  United  States  had  let  it  alone  ?  The 
government  armed  and  led  the  ruffians  against  the 
poor  farmers.  I  do  not  know  any  story  so  gloomy  as 
the  politics  of  this  country  for  the  last  twenty  years, 
centralizing  ever  more  manifestly  round  one  spring,  and 
that  a  vast  crime,  and  ever  more  plainly,  until  it  is  no- 
torious that  all  promotion,  power  and  policy  are  dictated 
from  one  source,  —  illustrating  the  fatal  effects  of  a 
false  position  to  demoralize  legislation  and  put  the  best 
people  always  at  a  disadvantage  ;  —  one  crime  always 
present,  always  to  be  varnished  over,  to  find  fine  names 
for  ;  and  we  free-statesmen,  as  accomplices  to  the  guilt, 
ever  in  the  power  of  the  grand  offender. 

Language  has  lost  its  meaning  in  the  universal  cant. 
Representative  Government  is  really  misrepresentative  ; 
Union  is  a  conspiracy  against  the  Northern  States  which 
the  Northern  States  arc  to  have  the  privilege  of  paying 
for  ;  the  adding  of  Cuba  and  Central  America  to  the 
slave  marts  is  enlarging  the  area  of  Freedom.  Manifest 
Destiny,  Democracy,  Freedom,  fine  names  for  an  ugly 
thing.  They  call  it  otto  of  rose  and  lavender,  — 1  call 
it  bilge  water.  They  call  it  Chivalry  and  Freedom  ;  I 
call  it  the  stealing  all  the  earnings  of  a  poor  man  and 
the  earnings  of  his  little  girl  and  boy,  and  the  earnings 
of  all  that  shall  come  from  him,  his  children's  children 
forever. 

But  this  is  Union,  and  this  is  Democracy  ;  and  onr 
poor  people,  led  by  the  nose  by  these  fine  words,  dance 
and  sing,  ring  bells  and  fire  cannon,  with  every  new 
link  of  the  chain  which  is  forged  for  their  limbs  by  the 
plotters  in  the  Capitol. 

What  are  the  results  of  law  and  union  ?  There  is  no 
Union.  Can  any  citizen  of  Massachusetts  travel  in 


SPEECH   ON   AFFAIRS   IN   KANSAS.          201 

honor  through  Kentucky  and  Alabama  and  speak  his 
mind  ?  Or  can  any  citizen  of  the  Southern  country 
who  happens  to  think  kidnapping  a  bad  thing,  say  so  ? 
Let  Mr.  Underwood  of  Virginia  answer.  Is  it  to  be 
supposed  that  there  are  no  men  in  Carolina  who  dissent 
from  the  popular  sentiment  now  reigning  there  ?  It 
must  happen,  in  the  variety  of  human  opinions,  that 
there  are  dissenters.  They  are  silent  as  the  grave.  Are 
there  no  women  in  that  country,  —  women,  who  always 
carry  the  conscience  of  a  people  ?  Yet  we  have  not 
heard  one  discordant  whisper. 

In  the  free  States,  we  give  a  snivelling  support  to 
slavery.  The  judges  give  cowardly  interpretations  to 
the  law,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  known  foundation  of 
all  law,  that  every  immoral  statute  is  void.  And  here  of 
Kansas,  the  President  says  :  "  Let  the  complainants  go 
to  the  courts  ; "  though  he  knows  that  when  the  poor 
plundered  farmer  comes  to  the  court,  he  finds  the  ring- 
leader who  has  robbed  him,  dismounting  from  his  own 
horse,  and  unbuckling  his  knife  to  sit  as  his  judge. 

The  President  told  the  Kansas  Committee  mat  the 
whole  difficulty  grew  from  "  the  factious  spirit  of  the 
Kansas  people,  respecting  institutions  which  they  need 
not  have  concerned  themselves  about."  A  very  re- 
markable speech  from  a  Democratic  President  to  his 
fellow-citizens,  that  they  are  not  to  concern  themselves 
with  institutions  which  they  alone  are  to  create  and  de- 
termine. The  President  is  a  lawyer,  and  should  know 
the  statutes  of  the  land.  But  I  borrow  the  language  of 
an  eminent  man,  used  long  since,  with  far  less  occasion  : 
"  If  that  be  law,  let  the  ploughshare  be  run  under  the 
foundations  of  the  Capitol  ;  "  —  and  if  that  be  Govern- 
ment, extirpation  is  the  only  cure. 


202          SPEECH   ON    AFFAIRS   IN   KANSAS. 

I  am  glad  to  see  that  the  terror  at  disunion  and  an- 
archy is  disappearing.  Massachusetts,  in  its  heroic  day, 
had  no  government  —  was  an  anarch}'.  Every  man 
stood  on  his  own  feet,  was  his  own  governor  ;  and  there 
was  no  breach  of  peace  from  Cape  Cod  to  Mount  Hoo- 
sac.  California,  a  few  years  ago,  by  the  testimony  of 
all  people  at  that  time  in  the  country,  had  the  best  gov- 
ernment that  ever  existed.  Pans  of  gold  lay  drying 
outside  of  every  man's  tent,  in  perfect  security.  The 
land  was  measured  into  little  strips  of  a  few  feet  wide, 
all  side  by  side.  A  bit  of  ground  that  your  hand  could 
cover  was  worth  one  or  two  hundred  dollars,  on  the 
edge  of  your  strip  ;  and  there  was  no  dispute.  Every 
man  throughout  the  country  was  armed  with  knife  and 
revolver,  and  it  was  known  that  instant  justice  would 
be  administered  to  each  offence,  and  perfect  peace 
reigned.  For  the  Saxon  man,  when  he  is  well  awake, 
is  not  a  pirate  but  a  citizen,  all  made  of  hooks  and 
eyes,  and  links  himself  naturally  to  his  brothers,  as 
bees  hook  themselves  to  one  another  and  to  their  queen 
in  a  loyal  swarm. 

But  the  hour  is  coming  when  the  strongest  will  not 
be  strong  enough.  A  harder  task  will  the  new  revolu- 
tion of  the  nineteenth  century  be,  than  was  the  revolu- 
tion of  the  eighteenth  century.  I  think  the  American 
Revolution  bought  its  glory  cheap.  If  the  problem  was 
new,  it  was  simple.  If  there  were  few  people,  they 
were  united,  and  the  enemy  3,000  miles  off.  But  now, 
vast  property,  gigantic  interests,  family  connections, 
webs  of  party,  cover  the  land  with  a  net-work  that  im- 
mensely multiplies  the  dangers  of  war. 

Fellow-Citizens,  in  these  times  full  of  the  fate  of  the 
Republic,  I  think  the  towns  should  hold  town  meetings, 


SPEECH   OX   AFFAIRS   IN    KANSAS.          203 

and  resolve  themselves  into  Committees  of  Safety,  go 
into  permanent  sessions,  adjourning  from  week  to  week, 
from  month  to  month.  I  wish  we  could  send  the  Ser- 
geant-at-arms  to  stop  every  American  who  is  about  to 
leave  the  country.  Send  home  every  one  who  is  abroad, 
lest  they  should  find  no  country  to  return  to.  Come 
home  and  stay  at  home,  while  there  is  a  country  to 
save.  When  it  is  lost  it  will  be  time  enough  then  for 
any  who  are  luckless  enough  to  remain  alive  to  gather 
up  their  clothes  and  depart  to  some  land  where  free- 
dom exists. 


REMARKS 


AT  A  MEETING  FOR  THE  RELIEF  OF  THE  FAMILY  OF  JOHN 

BROWN,  AT  TREMONT  TEMPLE,  BOSTON, 

NOVEMBER  18,  1859. 


JOHN  BROWN:  SPEECH  AT  BOSTON. 


MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  : 

I  share  the  sympathy  and  sorrow  which  have  brought 
us  together.  Gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me  have 
well  said  that  no  wall  of  separation  could  here  exist. 
This  commanding  event  which  has  brought  us  together, 
eclipses  all  others  which  have  occurred  for  a  long  time 
in  our  history,  and  I  am  very  glad  to  see  that  this  sud- 
den interest  in  the  hero  of  Harper's  Ferry  has  provoked 
an  extreme  curiosity  in  all  parts  of  the  Republic,  in  re- 
gard to  the  details  of  his  history.  Every  anecdote  is 
eagerly  sought,  and  I  do  not  wonder  that  gentlemen 
find  traits  of  relation  readily  between  him  and  them- 
selves. One  finds  a  relation  in  the  church,  another  in 
the  profession,  another  in  the  place  of  his  birth.  He 
was  happily  a  representative  of  the  American  Republic. 
Captain  John  Brown  is  a  farmer,  the  fifth  in  descent 
from  Peter  Brown,  who  came  to  Plymouth  in  the  May- 
flower, in  1620.  All  the  six  have  been  farmers.  His 
grandfather,  of  Simsbnry,  in  Connecticut,  was  a  captain 
in  the  Revolution.  His  father,  largely  interested  as  a 
raiser  of  stock,  became  a  contractor  to  supply  the  army 
with  beef,  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  our  Captain  John 
Brown,  then  a  boy,  with  his  father,  was  present  and 
witnessed  the  surrender  of  General  Hull.  He  cherishes 
a  great  respect  for  his  father,  as  a  man  of  strong:  char- 


208  BEMARKS  AT   A   MEETING   FOE 

acter,  and  his  respect  is  probably  just.  For  himself,  he 
is  so  transparent  that  all  men  see  him  through.  He  is 
a  man  to  make  friends  wherever  on  earth  courage  and 
integrity  are  esteemed,  the  rarest  of  heroes,  a  pure 
idealist,  with  no  by-ends  of  his  own.  Many  of  you 
have  seen  him,  and  every  one  who  has  heard  him  speak 
has  been  impressed  alike  by  his  simple,  artless  good- 
ness, joined  with  his  sublime  courage.  He  joins  that 
perfect  Puritan  faith  which  brought  his  fifth  ancestor  to 
Plymouth  Rock,  with  his  grandfather's  ardor  in  the 
Revolution.  He  believes  in  two  articles,  —  two  instru- 
ments shall  I  say?  —  the  Golden  Rule  and  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  ;  and  he  used  this  expression 
in  conversation  here  concerning  them,  "  Better  that  a 
whole  generation  of  men,  women  and  children  should 
pass  away  by  a  violent  death,  than  that  one  word  of 
either  should  be  violated  in  this  country."  There  is  a 
Unionist,  —  there  is  a  strict  constructionist  for  you. 
He  believes  in  the  Union  of  the  States,  and  he  conceives 
that  the  only  obstruction  to  the  Union  is  Slavery,  and 
for  that  reason,  as  a  patriot,  he  works  for  its  abolition. 
The  Governor  of  Virginia  has  pronounced  his  eulogy 
in  a  manner  that  discredits  the  moderation  of  our  timid 
parties.  His  own  speeches  to  the  court  have  interested 
the  nation  in  him.  What  magnanimity,  and  what  in- 
nocent pleading,  as  of  childhood  !  You  remember  his 
words  :  "  If  I  had  interfered  in  behalf  of  the  rich,  the 
powerful,  the  intelligent,  the  so-called  great,  or  any  of 
their  friends,  parents,  wives,  or  children,  it  would  all 
have  been  right.  But  I  believe  that  to  have  interfered 
as  I  have  done,  for  the  despised  poor,  was  not  wrong, 
but  right." 

It  is  easy  to  see  what  a  favorite  he  will  be  with  his- 


RELIEF   OF  JOHN   BROWN'S   FAMILY.        209 

tory,  which  plays  such  pranks  with  temporary  reputa- 
tions. Nothing  can  resist  the  sympathy  which  all  ele- 
vated minds  must  feel  with  Brown,  and  through  them 
the  whole  civilized  world  ;  and  if  he  must  suffer,  he 
must  drag  official  gentlemen  into  an  immortality  most 
undesirable,  and  of  which  they  have  already  some  disa- 
greeable forebodings.  Indeed,  it  is  the  reductio  ad  ab- 
surdum  of  Slavery,  when  the  Governor  of  Virginia  is 
forced  to  hang  a  man  whom  he  declares  to  be  a  man  of 
the  most  integrity,  truthfulness  and  courage  he  has 
ever  met.  Is  that  the  kind  of  man  the  gallows  is  built 
for  ?  It  were  bold  to  affirm  that  there  is  within  that 
broad  Commonwealth,  at  this  moment,  another  citizen 
as  worthy  to  live,  and  as  deserving  of  all  public  and 
private  honor,  as  this  poor  prisoner. 

But  we  are  here  to  think  of  relief  for  the  family  of 
John  Brown.  To  my  eyes,  that  family  looks  very  large 
and  very  needy  of  relief.  It  comprises  his  brave  fellow- 
sufferers  in  the  Charlestown  Jail ;  the  fugitives  still 
hunted  in  the  mountains  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  ; 
the  sympathizers  with  him  in  all  the  States  ;  and  I  may 
say,  almost  every  man  who  loves  the  Golden  Rule  and 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  like  him,  and  who  sees 
what  a  tiger's  thirst  threatens  him  in  the  malignity  of 
public  sentiment  in  the  Slave  States.  It  seems  to  me 
that  a  common  feeling  joins  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
with  him. 

I  said  John  Brown  was  an  idealist.  He  believed  in 
his  ideas  to  that  extent  that  he  existed  to  put  them  all 
into  action  ;  he  said,  he  "  did  not  believe  in  moral  sua- 
sion," he  "  believed  in  putting  the  thing  through."  He 
saw  how  deceptive  the  forms  are.  We  fancy,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, that  we  are  free  ;  yet  it  seems  the  Govern- 
14 


210  REMARKS  AT   A   MEETING   FOR 

ment  is  quite  unreliable.  Great  wealth,  great  popula- 
tion, men  of  talent  in  the  Executive,  on  the  Bench,  — 
all  the  forms  right,  —  and  yet,,  life  and  freedom  are  not 
safe.  Why?  Because  the  judges  rely  on  the  forms, 
and  do  not,  like  John  Brown,  use  their  eyes  to  see  the 
fact  behind  the  forms.  They  assume  that  the  United 
States  can  protect  its  witness  or  its  prisoner.  And,  in 
Massachusetts,  that  is  true,  but  the  moment  he  is  carried 
out  of  the  bounds  of  Massachusetts,  the  United  States, 
it  is  notorious,  afford  no  protection  at  all  ;  the  Govern- 
ment, the  judges,  are  an  envenomed  party,  and  give 
such  protection  as  they  give  in  Utah  to  honest  citizens, 
or  in  Kansas  ;  such  protection  as  they  gave  to  their  own 
Commodore  Paulding,  when  he  was  simple  enough  to 
mistake  the  formal  instructions  of  his  Government  for 
their  real  meaning.  The  state  judges  fear  collision  be- 
tween their  two  allegiances  ;  but  there  are  worse  evils 
than  collision  ;  namely,  the  doing  substantial  injustice. 
A  good  man  will  see  that  the  use  of  a  judge  is  to  secure 
good  government,  and  where  the  citizen's  weal  is  im- 
perilled by  abuse  of  the  Federal  power,  to  use  that  arm 
which  can  secure  it,  viz.,  the  local  government.  Had 
that  been  done  on  certain  calamitous  occasions,  we 
should  not  have  seen  the  honor  of  Massachusetts  trailed 
in  the  dust,  stained  to  all  ages,  once  and  again,  by  the 
ill-timed  formalism  of  a  venerable  bench.  If  judges 
cannot  find  law  enough  to  maintain  the  sovereignty  of 
the  state,  and  to  protect  the  life  and  freedom  of  every 
inhabitant  not  a  criminal,  it  is  idle  to  compliment  them 
as  learned  and  venerable.  What  avails  their  learning 
or  veneration  ?  At  a  pinch,  they  are  no  more  use  than 
idiots.  After  the  mischance  they  wring  their  hands, 
but  they  had  better  never  have  been  born.  A  Vermont 


RELIEF   OF   JOHN   BROWN'S   FAMILY.        211 

Judge  Hutchinson,  who  has  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence in  his  heart  ;  a  Wisconsin  judge,  who  knows 
that  laws  are  for  the  protection  of  citizens  against  kid- 
nappers, is  worth  a  court-house  full  of  lawyers  so  idola- 
trous of  forms  as  to  let  go  the  substance.  Is  any  man 
in  Massachusetts  so  simple  as  to  believe  that  when  a 
United  States  Court  in  Virginia,  now,  in  its  present 
reign  of  terror,  sends  to  Connecticut,  or  New  York,  or 
Massachusetts,  for  a  witness,  it  wants  him  for  a  wit- 
ness ?  No  ;  it  wants  him  for  a  party  ;  it  wants  him  for 
meat  to  slaughter  and  eat.  And  your  habeas  corpus  is, 
in  any  way  in  which  it  has  been,  or,  I  fear,  is  likely  to 
be  used,  a  nuisance,  and  not  a  protection  ;  for  it  takes 
away  his  right  reliance  on  himself,  and  the  natural  as- 
sistance of  his  friends  and  fellow-citizens,  by  offering 
him  a  form  which  is  a  piece  of  paper. 

But  I  am  detaining  the  meeting  on  matters  which 
others  understand  better.  I  hope,  then,  that  in  admin- 
istering relief  to  John  Brown's  family,  we  shall  re- 
member all  those  whom  his  fate  concerns,  all  who  are 
in  sympathy  with  him,  and  not  forget  to  aid  him  in  the 
best  way,  by  securing  freedom  and  independence  in 
Massachusetts. 


JOHN  BROWN. 

SPEECH  AT  SALEM,  JANUARY  6,  I860. 


JOHN  BROWN. 


MR.  CHAIRMAN  : 

I  have  been  struck  with  one  fact,  that  the  best  ora- 
tors who  have  added  their  praise  to  his  fame,  —  and  I 
need  not  go  out  of  this  house  to  find  the  purest  elo- 
quence in  the  country,  —  have  one  rival  who  conies  off 
a  little  better,  and  that  is  JOHN  BROWN.  Everything 
that  is  said  of  him  leaves  people  a  little  dissatisfied  ;  but 
as  soon  as  they  read  his  own  speeches  and  letters  they 
are  heartily  contented,  —  such  is  the  singleness  of  pur- 
pose which  justifies  him  to  the  head  and  the  heart  of  all. 
Taught  by  this  experience,  I  mean,  in  the  few  remarks 
I  have  to  make,  to  cling  to  his  history,  or  let  him  speak 
for  himself. 

John  Brown,  the  founder  of  liberty  in  Kansas,  was 
born  in  Torrington,  Litchfield  County,  Conn.,  in  1800. 
When  he  was  five  years  old  his  father  emigrated  to 
Ohio,  and  the  boy  was  there  set  to  keep  sheep  and  to 
look  after  cattle  and  dress  skins  ;  he  went  bareheaded 
and  barefooted,  and  clothed  in  buckskin.  He  said  that 
he  loved  rough  play,  could  never  have  rough  play 
enough  ;  could  not  see  a  seedy  hat  without  wishing  to 
pull  it  off.  But  for  this  it  needed  that  the  playmates 
should  be  equal ;  not  one  in  fine  clothes  and  the  other  in 


216  JOHN   BROWN: 

buckskin  ;  not  one  his  own  master,  hale  and  hearty,  and 
the  other  watched  and  whipped.  But  it  chanced  that 
in  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was  sent  by  his  father  to  col- 
lect cattle,  he  fell  in  with  a  boy  whom  he  heartily  liked 
and  whom  he  looked  upon  as  his  superior.  This  boy 
was  a  slave  ;  he  saw  him  beaten  with  an  iron  shovel, 
and  otherwise  maltreated  ;  he  saw  that  this  boy  had 
nothing  better  to  look  forward  to  in  life,  whilst  he  him- 
self was  petted  and  made  much  of  ;  for  he  was  much 
considered  in  the  family  where  he  then  stayed,  from 
the  circumstance  that  this  boy  of  twelve  years  had  con- 
ducted alone  a  drove  of  cattle  a  hundred  miles.  But 
the  colored  boy  had  no  friend,  and  no  future.  This 
worked  such  indignation  in  him  that  he  swore  an  oath 
of  resistance  to  Slavery  as  long  as  he  lived.  And  thus 
his  enterprise  to  go  into  Virginia  and  run  off  five  hun- 
dred or  a  thousand  slaves  was  not  a  piece  of  spite  or  re- 
venge, a  plot  of  two  years  or  of  twenty  years,  but  the 
keeping  of  an  oath  made  to  Heaven  and  earth  forty- 
seven  years  before.  Forty-seven  years  at  least,  though 
I  incline  to  accept  his  own  account  of  the  matter  at 
Charlestown,  which  makes  the  date  a  little  older,  when 
he  said,  "This  was  all  settled  millions  of  years  before 
the  world  was  made." 

He  grew  up  a  religious  and  manly  person,  in  severe 
poverty  ;  a  fair  specimen  of  the  best  stock  of  New  Eng- 
land ;  having  that  force  of  thought  and  that  sense  of 
right  which  are  the  warp  and  woof  of  greatness.  Our 
farmers  were  Orthodox  Calvinists,  mighty  in  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  had  learned  that  life  was  a  preparation,  a  "  pro- 
bation," to  use  their  word,  for  a  higher  world,  and  was 
to  be  spent  in  loving  and  serving  mankind. 

Thus  was  formed  a  romantic   character  absolutely 


SPEECH  AT  SALEM.  217 

without  any  vulgar  trait  ;  living  to  ideal  ends,  without 
any  mixture  of  self-indulgence  or  compromise,  such  as 
lowers  the  value  of  benevolent  and  thoughtful  men  we 
know  ;  abstemious,  refusing  luxuries,  not  sourly  and  re- 
proachfully, but  simply  as  unfit  for  his  habit ;  quiet  and 
gentle  as  a  child  in  the  house.  And,  as  happens  usually 
to  men  of  romantic  character,  his  fortunes  were  roman- 
tic. Walter  Scott  would  have  delighted  to  draw  his 
picture  and  trace  his  adventurous  career.  A  shepherd 
and  herdsman,  he  learned  the  manners  of  animals,  and 
knew  the  secret  signals  by  which  animals  communicate. 
He  made  his  hard  bed  on  the  mountains  with  them  ;  he 
learned  to  drive  his  flock  through  thickets  all  but  im- 
passable ;  he  had  all  the  skill  of  a  shepherd  by  choice  of 
breed  and  by  wise  husbandry  to  obtain  the  best  wool, 
and  that  for  a  course  of  years.  And  the  anecdotes  pre- 
served show  a  far-seeing  skill  and  conduct  which,  in 
spite  of  adverse  accidents,  should  secure,  one  year  with 
another,  an  honest  reward,  first  to  the  farmer,  and  af- 
terwards to  the  dealer.  If  he  kept  sheep,  it  was  with  a 
royal  mind  ;  and  if  he  traded  in  wool,  he  was  a  mer- 
chant prince,  not  in  the  amount  of  wealth,  but  in  the 
protection  of  the  interests  confided  to  him. 

I  am  not  a  little  surprised  at  the  easy  effrontery  with 
which  political  gentlemen,  in  and  out  of  Congress,  take 
it  upon  them  to  say  that  there  are  not  a  thousand  men 
in  the  North  who  sympathize  with  John  Brown.  It 
would  be  far  safer  and  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  all 
people,  in  proportion  to  their  sensibility  and  self-respect, 
sympathize  with  him.  For  it  is  impossible  to  see  cour- 
age, and  disinterestedness,  and  the  love  that  casts  out 
fear,  without  sympathy.  All  women  are  drawn  to  him 
by  their  predominance  of  sentiment.  All  gentlemen,  of 


218  JOHN   BROWN. 

course,  are  on  his  side.  I  do  not  mean  by  "  gentlemen," 
people  of  scented  hair  and  perfumed  handkerchiefs,  but 
men  of  gentle  blood  and  generosity,  "  fulfilled  with  all 
nobleness,"  who,  like  the  Cid,  give  the  outcast  leper  a 
share  of  their  bed  ;  like  the  dying  Sidney,  pass  the  cup 
of  cold  water  to  the  wounded  soldier  who  needs  it  more. 
For  what  is  the  oath  of  gentle  blood  and  knighthood  ? 
What  but  to  protect  the  weak  and  lowly  against  the 
strong  oppressor  ? 

Nothing  is  more  absurd  than  to  complain  of  this  sym- 
pathy, or  to  complain  of  a  party  of  men  united  in  op- 
position to  Slavery.  As  well  complain  of  gravity,  or 
the  ebb  of  the  tide.  Who  makes  the  Abolitionist  ? 
The  slaveholder.  The  sentiment  of  mercy  is  the  natu- 
ral recoil  which  the  laws  of  the  universe  provide  to  pro- 
tect mankind  from  destruction  by  savage  passions.  And 
our  blind  statesmen  go  up  and  down,  with  committees  of 
vigilance  and  safety,  hunting  for  the  origin  of  this  new 
heresy.  They  will  need  a  very  vigilant  committee  in- 
deed to  find  its  birthplace,  and  a  very  strong  force  to 
root  it  out.  For  the  arch- Abolitionist,  older  than  Brown, 
and  older  than  the  Shenandoah  Mountains,  is  Love, 
whose  other  name  is  Justice,  which  was  before  Alfred, 
before  Lycurgus,  before  Slavery,  and  will  be  after  it. 


THEODORE  PARKER. 

AN  ADDRESS  AT  THE  MEMORIAL.  MEETING  AT  THE  MUSIC 
HALL,  BOSTON,  JUNE  15,  1860. 


THEODORE   PARKER. 


AT  the  death  of  a  good  and  admirable  person,  we 
meet  to  console  and  animate  each  other  by  the  recollec- 
tion of  his  virtues. 

I  have  the  feeling  that  every  man's  biography  is  at 
his  own  expense.  He  furnishes  not  only  the  facts  but 
the  report.  I  mean  that  all  biography  is  autobiography. 
It  is  only  what  he  tells  of  himself  that  comes  to  be 
known  and  believed.  In  Plutarch's  lives  of  Alexander 
and  Pericles,  you  have  the  secret  whispers  of  their  con- 
fidence to  their  lovers  and  trusty  friends.  For  it  was 
each  report  of  this  kind  that  impressed  those  to  whom 
it  was  told  in  a  manner  to  secure  its  being  told  every- 
where to  the  best,  to  those  who  speak  with  authority  to 
their  own  times  and  therefore  to  ours.  For  the  political 
rule  is  a  cosmical  rule,  that  if  a  man  is  not  strong  in  his 
own  district,  he  is  not  a  good  candidate  elsewhere. 

He  whose  voice  will  not  be  heard  here  again,  could 
well  afford  to  tell  his  experiences  ;  they  were  all  honor- 
able to  him,  and  were  part  of  the  history  of  the  civil 
and  religious  liberty  of  his  times.  Theodore  Parker 
was  a  son  of  the  soil,  charged  with  the  energy  of  New 
England,  strong,  eager,  inquisitive  of  knowledge,  of  a 
diligence  that  never  tired,  upright,  of  a  haughty  inde- 
pendence, yet  the  gentlest  of  companions  ;  a  man  of 


222  THEODORE   PARKER. 

study,  fit  for  a  man  of  the  world  ;  with  decided  opin- 
ions and  plenty  of  power  to  state  them  ;  rapidly  push- 
ing his  studies  so  far  as  to  leave  few  men  qualified  to  sit 
as  his  critics.  He  elected  his  part  of  duty,  or  accepted 
nobly  that  assigned  him  in  his  rare  constitution.  Won- 
derful acquisition  of  knowledge,  a  rapid  wit  that  heard 
all,  and  welcomed  all  that  came,  by  seeing  its  bearing. 
Such  was  the  largeness  of  his  reception  of  facts  and  his 
skill  to  employ  them,  that  it  looked  as  if  he  were  some  \ 
President  of  Council  to  whom  a  score  of  telegraphs 
were  ever  bringing  in  reports  ;  and  his  information 
would  have  been  excessive,  but  for  the  noble  use  he 
made  of  it  ever  in  the  interest  of  humanity.  He  had 
a  strong  understanding,  a  logical  method,  a  love  for 
facts,  a  rapid  eye  for  their  historic  relations,  and  a  skill 
in  stripping  them  of  traditional  lustres.  He  had  a 
sprightly  fancy,  and  often  amused  himself  with  throw- 
ing his  meaning  into  pretty  apologues  ;  yet  we  can 
hardly  ascribe  to  his  mind  the  poetic  element,  though 
his  scholarship  had  made  him  a  reader  and  quoter  of 
verses.  A  little  more  feeling  of  the  poetic  significance 
of  his  facts  would  have  disqualified  him  for  some  of  his 
severer  offices  to  his  generation.  The  old  religions  have 
a  charm  for  most  minds  which  it  is  a  little  uncanny  to 
disturb.  'T  is  sometimes  a  question,  shall  we  not  leave 
them  to  decay  without  rude  shocks  ?  I  remember  that 
I  found  some  harshness  in  his  treatment  both  of  Greek 
and  of  Hebrew  antiquity,  and  sympathized  with  the  pain 
of  many  good  people  in  his  auditory,  whilst  I  acquitted 
him,  of  course,  of  any  wish  to  be  flippant.  He  came  at 
a  time  when,  to  the  irresistible  march  of  opinion,  the 
forms  still  retained  by  the  most  advanced  sects  showed 
loose  and  lifeless,  and  he,  with  something  less  of  affec- 


THEODORE   PARKER.  223 

tionate  attachment  to  the  old,  or  with  more  vigorous 
logic,  rejected  them.  'T  is  objected  to  him  that  he 
scattered  too  many  illusions.  Perhaps  more  tenderness 
would  have  been  graceful  ;  but  it  is  vain  to  charge  him 
with  perverting  the  opinions  of  the  new  generation. 

The  opinions  of  men  are  organic.  Simply,  those 
came  to  him  who  found  themselves  expressed  by  him. 
And  had  they  not  met  this  enlightened  mind,  in  which 
they  beheld  their  own  opinions  combined  with  zeal  in 
every  cause  of  love  and  humanity,  they  would  have  sus- 
pected their  opinions  and  suppressed  them,  and  so  sunk 
into  melancholy  or  malignity,  —  a  feeling  of  loneliness 
and  hostility  to  what  was  reckoned  respectable.  'T  is 
plain  to  me  that  he  has  achieved  a  historic  immortality 
here  ;  that  he  has  so  woven  himself  in  these  few  years 
into  the  history  of  Boston,  that  he  can  never  be  left  out 
of  your  annals.  It  will  not  be  in  the  acts  of  City  Coun- 
cils, nor  of  obsequious  Mayors  ;  nor,  in  the  State  House, 
the  proclamations  of  Governors,  with  their  failing  virtue 
—  failing  them  at  critical  moments  —  that  the  coming 
generations  will  study  what  really  befell ;  but  in  the 
plain  lessons  of  Theodore  Parker  in  this  Music  Hall,  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  or  in  Legislative  Committee  Rooms,  that 
the  true  temper  and  authentic  record  of  these  days  will 
be  read.  The  next  generation  will  care  little  for  the 
chances  of  elections  that  govern  Governors  now,  it  will 
care  little  for  fine  gentlemen  who  behaved  shabbily  ; 
but  it  will  read  very  intelligently  in  his  rough  story, 
fortified  with  exact  anecdotes,  precise  with  names  and 
dates,  what  part  was  taken  by  each  actor  ;  who  threw 
himself  into  the  cause  of  humanity  and  came  to  the 
rescue  of  civilization  at  a  hard  pinch,  and  who  blocked 
its  course. 


224  THEODORE   PARKER. 

The  vice  charged  against  America  is  the  want  of  sin- 
cerity in  leading  men.  It  does  not  lie  at  his  door.  He 
never  kept  back  the  truth  for  fear  to  make  an  enemy. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  complained  that  he  was 
bitter  and  harsh,  that  his  zeal  burned  with  too  hot  a 
flame.  It  is  so  difficult,  in  evil  times,  to  escape  this 
charge  !  for  the  faithful  preacher  most  of  all.  It  was 
his  merit,  like  Luther,  Knox  and  Latimer,  and  John 
Baptist,  to  speak  tart  truth,  when  that  was  peremptory 
and  when  there  were  few  to  say  it.  But  his  sympathy 
for  goodness  was  not  less  energetic.  One  fault  he  had, 
he  overestimated  his  friends,  —  I  may  well  say  it,  —  and 
sometimes  vexed  them  with  the  importunity  of  his  good 
opinion,  whilst  they  knew  better  the  ebb  which  follows 
unfounded  praise.  He  was  capable,  it  must  be  said,  of 
the  most  unmeasured  eulogies  on  those  he  esteemed, 
especially  if  he  had  any  jealousy  that  they  did  not 
stand  with  the  Boston  public  as  highly  as  they  ought. 
His  commanding  merit  as  a  reformer  is  this,  that  he  in- 
sisted beyond  all  men  in  pulpits,  —  I  cannot  think  of 
one  rival,  —  that  the  essence  of  Christianity  is  its  prac- 
tical morals  ;  it  is  there  for  use,  or  it  is  nothing  ;  and  if 
you  combine  it  with  sharp  trading,  or  with  ordinary  city 
ambitions  to  gloze  over  municipal  corruptions,  or  pri- 
vate intemperance,  or  successful  fraud,  or  immoral  poli- 
tics, or  unjust  wars,  or  the  cheating  of  Indians,  or  the 
robbery  of  frontier  nations,  or  leaving  your  principles  at 
home  to  follow  on  the  high  seas  or  in  Europe  a  supple 
complaisance  to  tyrants,  —  it  is  a  hypocrisy,  and  the 
truth  is  not  in  you  ;  and  no  love  of  religious  music  or 
of  dreams  of  Swedenborg,  or  praise  of  John  Wesley,  or 
of  Jeremy  Taylor,  can  save  you  from  the  Satan  which 
you  are. 


THEODORE   PARKER.  225 

His  ministry  fell  on  a  political  crisis  also  ;  on  the 
years  when  Southern  slavery  broke  over  its  old  banks, 
made  new  and  vast  pretensions,  and  wrung  from  the 
weakness  or  treachery  of  Northern  people  fatal  con- 
cessions in  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  and  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  Two  days,  bitter  in  the 
memory  of  Boston,  the  days  of  the  rendition  of  Sims 
and  of  Burns,  made  the  occasion  of  his  most  remark- 
able discourses.  He  kept  nothing  back.  In  terrible 
earnest  he  denounced  the  public  crime,  and  meted  out 
to  every  official,  high  and  low,  his  due  portion.  By  the 
incessant  power  of  his  statement,  he  made  and  held  a 
party.  It  was  his  great  service  to  freedom.  He  took 
away  the  reproach  of  silent  consent  that  would  other- 
wise have  lain  against  the  indignant  minority,  by  utter- 
ing in  the  hour  and  place  wherein  these  outrages  were 
done,  the  stern  protest. 

But,  whilst  I  praise  this  frank  speaker,  I  have  no 
wish  to  accuse  the  silence  of  others.  There  are  men 
of  good  powers  who  have  so  much  sympathy  that  they 
must  be  silent  when  they  are  not  in  sympathy.  If 
you  don't  agree  with  them,  they  know  they  only  injure 
the  truth  by  speaking.  Their  faculties  will  not  play 
them  true,  and  they  do  not  wish  to  squeak  and  gibber, 
and  so  they  shut  their  mouths.  I  can  readily  forgive 
this,  only  not  the  other,  the  false  tongue  which  makes 
the  worse  appear  the  better  cause.  There  were,  of 
course,  multitudes  to  censure  and  defame  this  truth- 
speaker.  But  the  brave  know  the  brave.  Fops,  whether 
in  hotels  or  churches,  will  utter  the  fop's  opinion,  and 
faintly  hope  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul  ;  but  his  manly 
enemies,  who  despised  the  fops,  honored  him  ;  and  it 
is  well  known  that  his  great  hospitable  heart  was  the 
15 


226  THEODORE   PARKER. 

sanctuary  to  which  every  soul  conscious  of  an  earnest 
opinion  came  for  sympathy,  —  alike  the  brave  slave- 
holder and  the  brave  slave-rescuer.  These  met  in  the 
house  of  this  honest  man,  —  for  every  sound  heart  loves 
a  responsible  person,  one  who  does  not  in  generous  com- 
pany say  generous  things,  and  in  mean  company  base 
things,  but  says  one  thing  —  now  cheerfully,  now  indig- 
nantly —  but  always  because  he  must,  and  because  he 
sees  that,  whether  he  speak  or  refrain  from  speech,  this 
is  said  over  him  ;  and  history,  nature  and  all  souls  tes- 
tify to  the  same. 

Ah,  my  brave  brother  !  it  seems  as  if,  in  a  frivolous 
age,  our  loss  were  immense,  and  your  place  cannot  be 
supplied.  But  you  will  already  be  consoled  in  the 
transfer  of  your  genius,  knowing  well  that  the  nature 
of  the  world  will  affirm  to  all  men,  in  all  times,  that 
which  for  twenty-five  years  you  valiantly  spoke  ;  that 
the  winds  of  Italy  murmur  the  same  truth  over  your 
grave  ;  the  winds  of  America  over  these  bereaved 
streets  ;  that  the  sea  which  bore  your  mourners  home 
affirms  it,  the  stars  in  their  courses,  and  the  inspira- 
tions of  youth  ;  whilst  the  polished  and  pleasant  traitors 
to  human  rights,  with  perverted  learning  and  disgraced 
graces,  rot  and  are  forgotten  with  their  double  tongue 
saying  all  that  is  sordid  for  the  corruption  of  man. 

The  sudden  and  singular  eminence  of  Mr.  Parker, 
the  importance  of  his  name  and  influence,  are  the  ver- 
dict of  his  country  to  his  virtues.  We  have  few  such 
men  to  lose  ;  amiable  and  blameless  at  home,  feared 
abroad  as  the  standard-bearer  of  liberty,  taking  all  the 
duties  lie  could  grasp,  and  more,  refusing  to  spare  him- 
self, he  has  gone  down  in  early  glory  to  his  grave,  to  be 
a  living  and  enlarging  power,  wherever  learning,  wit, 
honest  valor  and  independence  are  honored. 


AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION. 


AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.1 


USE,  labor  of  each  for  all,  is  the  health  and  virtue  of 
all  beings.  Ich  dien,  I  serve,  is  a  truly  royal  motto.  And 
it  is  the  mark  of  nobleness  to  volunteer  the  lowest  serv- 
ice, the  greatest  spirit  only  attaining  to  humility.  Nay, 
God  is  God  because  he  is  the  servant  of  all.  Well,  now 
here  comes  this  conspiracy  of  slavery,  —  they  call  it  aa 
institution,  I  call  it  a  destitution,  —  this  stealing  of  men 
and  setting  them  to  work,  stealing  their  labor,  and  the 
thief  sitting  idle  himself  ;  and  for  two  or  three  ages  it 
has  lasted,  and  has  yielded  a  certain  quantity  of  rice, 
cotton  and  sugar.  And,  standing  on  this  doleful  expe- 
rience, these  people  have  endeavored  to  reverse  the  nat- 
ural sentiments  of  mankind,  and  to  pronounce  labor  dis- 
graceful, and  the  well-being  of  a  man  to  consist  in  eat- 
ing the  fruit  of  other  men's  labor.  Labor  :  a  man  coins 
himself  into  his  labor  ;  turns  his  day,  his  strength,  his 
thought,  his  affection  into  some  product  which  remains 
as  the  visible  sign  of  his  power  ;  and  to  protect  that,  to 
secure  that  to  him,  to  secure  his  past  self  to  his  future 
self,  is  the  object  of  all  government.  There  is  no  inter- 

i  Part  of  a  lecture  delivered  at  Washington,  Jan.  31,  1862,  it  is  said, 
in  the  presence  of  President  Lincoln  and  some  of  his  Cabinet,  some 
months  before  the  issuing  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  The 
rest  was  published  in  Society  and  Solitude,  under  the  title  "CivBiz* 


230  AMERICAN    CIVILIZATION. 

est  in  any  country  so  imperative  as  that  of  labor  ;  it 
covers  all,  and  constitutions  and  governments  exist  for 
that,  —  to  protect  and  insure  it  to  the  laborer.  All 
honest  men  are  daily  striving  to  earn  their  bread  by 
their  industry.  And  who  is  this  who  tosses  his  empty 
head  at  this  blessing  in  disguise,  the  constitution  of 
human  nature,  and  calls  labor  vile,  and  insults  the  faith- 
ful workman  at  his  daily  toil  ?  I  see  for  such  madness 
no  hellebore,  —  for  such  calamity  no  solution  but  ser- 
vile war  and  the  Africanization  of  the  country  that  per- 
mits it. 

At  this  moment  in  America  the  aspects  of  political 
society  absorb  attention.  In  every  house,  from  Canada 
to  the  Gulf,  the  children  ask  the  serious  father,  — 
"  What  is  the  news  of  the  war  to-day,  and  when  will 
there  be  better  times  ?  "  The  boys  have  no  new 
clothes,  no  gifts,  no  journeys  ;  the  girls  must  go  with- 
out new  bonnets  ;  boys  and  girls  find  their  education, 
this  year,  less  liberal  and  complete.  All  the  little  hopes 
that  heretofore  made  the  year  pleasant  are  deferred. 
The  state  of  the  country  fills  us  with  anxiety  and  stern 
duties.  We  have  attempted  to  hold  together  two  states 
of  civilization  :  a  higher  state,  where  labor  and  the  ten- 
ure of  land  and  the  right  of  suffrage  are  democratical  ; 
and  a  lower  state,  in  which  the  old  military  tenure  of 
prisoners  or  slaves,  and  of  power  and  land  in  a  few 
hands,  makes  an  oligarchy  :  we  have  attempted  to  hold 
these  two  states  of  society  under  one  law.  But  the 
rude  and  early  state  of  society  does  not  work  well  with 
the  later,  nay,  works  badly,  and  has  poisoned  politics, 
public  morals  and  social  intercourse  in  the  Republic, 
uow  for  many  years. 

The  times  put  this  question,  Why  cannot  the  best 


AMERICAN   CIVILIZATION.  231 

civilization  be  extended  over  the  whole  country,  since 
the  disorder  of  the  less-civilized  portion  menaces  the 
existence  of  the  country  ?  Is  this  secular  progress 
we  have  described,  this  evolution  of  man  to  the  highest 
powers,  only  to  give  him  sensibility,  and  not  to  bring 
duties  with  it  ?  Is  he  not  to  make  his  knowledge  prac- 
tical ?  to  stand  and  to  withstand  ?  Is  not  civilization 
heroic  also  ?  Is  it  not  for  action  ?  has  it  not  a  will  ? 
"  There  are  periods,"  said  Niebuhr,  "  when  something 
much  better  than  happiness  and  security  of  life  is  at- 
tainable." We  live  in  a  new  and  exceptional  age. 
America  is  another  word  for  Opportunity.  Our  whole 
history  appears  like  a  last  effort  of  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence in  behalf  of  the  human  race  ;  and  a  literal,  slav- 
ish following  of  precedents,  as  by  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
is  not  for  those  who  at  this  hour  lead  the  destinies  of 
this  people.  The  evil  you  contend  with  has  taken  alarm- 
ing proportions,  and  you  still  content  yourself  with  par- 
rying the  blows  it  aims,  but,  as  if  enchanted,  abstain 
from  striking  at  the  cause. 

If  the  American  people  hesitate,  it  is  not  for  want  of 
warning  or  advices.  The  telegraph  has  been  swift 
enough  to  announce  our  disasters.  The  journals  have 
not  suppressed  the  extent  of  the  calamity.  Neither 
was  there  any  want  of  argument  or  of  experience.  If 
the  war  brought  any  surprise  to  the  North,  it  was  not 
the  fault  of  sentinels  on  the  watch-tower,  who  had  fur- 
nished full  details  of  the  designs,  the  muster  and  the 
means  of  the  enemy.  Neither  was  anything  concealed 
of  the  theory  or  practice  of  slavery.  To  what  purpose 
make  more  big  books  of  these  statistics  ?  There  are 
already  mountains  of  facts,  if  any  one  wants  them.  But 
people  do  not  want  them.  They  bring  their  opinion 


232  AMERICAN   CIVILIZATION. 

into  ehe  world.  If  they  have  a  comatose  tendency  in. 
the  brain,  they  are  pro-slavery  while  they  live  ;  if  of  a 
nervous  sanguineous  temperament,  they  are  abolition- 
ists. Then  interests  were  never  persuaded.  Can  you 
convince  the  shoe  interest,  or  the  iron  interest,  or  the 
cotton  interest,  by  reading  passages  from  Milton  or 
Montesquieu  ?  You  wish  to  satisfy  people  that  slav- 
ery is  bad  economy.  Why,  the  "  Edinburgh  Review  " 
pounded  on  that  string,  and  made  out  its  ease,  forty 
years  ago.  A  democratic  statesman  said  to  me,  long 
since,  that,  if  he  owned  the  State  of  Kentucky,  he  would 
manumit  all  the  slaves,  and  be  a  gainer  by  the  transac- 
tion. Is  this  new  ?  No,  everybody  knows  it.  As  a 
general  economy  it  is  admitted.  But  there  is  no  one 
owner  of  the  state,  but  a  good  many  small  owners.  One 
man  owns  land  and  slaves  ;  another  owns  slaves  only. 
Here  is  a  woman  who  has  no  other  property,  —  like  a 
lady  in  Charleston  I  knew  of,  who  owned  fifteen  sweeps 
and  rode  in  her  carriage.  It  is  clearly  a  vast  inconven- 
ience to  each  of  these  to  make  any  change,  and  they 
are  fretful  and  talkative,  and  all  their  friends  are  ; 
and  those  less  interested  are  inert,  and,  from  want 
of  thought,  averse  to  innovation.  It  is  like  free  trade, 
certainly  the  interest  of  nations,  but  by  no  means  the 
interest  of  certain  towns  and  districts,  which  tariff  feeds 
fat  ;  and  the  eager  interest  of  the  few  overpowers  the 
apathetic  general  conviction  of  the  many.  Banknotes 
rob  the  public,  but  are  such  a  daily  convenience  that  we 
silence  our  scruples  and  make  believe  they  are  gold.  So 
imposts  are  the  cheap  and  right  taxation  ;  but,  by  the 
dislike  of  people  to  pay  out  a  direct  tax,  governments 
are  forced  to  render  life  costly  by  making  them  pay 
twice  as  much,  hidden  in  the  price  of  tea  and  sugar. 


AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.  233 

In  this  national  crisis,  it  is  not  argument  that  we 
want,  but  that  rare  courage  which  dares  commit  itself 
to  a  principle,  believing  that  Nature  is  its  ally,  and  will 
create  the  instruments  it  requires,  and  more  than  make 
good  any  petty  and  injurious  profit  which  it  may  dis- 
turb. There  never  was  such  a  combination  as  this  of 
-ours,  and  the  rules  to  meet  it  are  not  set  down  in  any 
history.  We  want  men  of  original  perception  and  orig- 
inal action,  who  can  open  their  eyes  wider  than  to  a 
nationality,  namely,  to  considerations  of  benefit  to  the 
human  race,  can  act  in  the  interest  of  civilization.  Gov- 
ernment must  not  be  a  parish  clerk,  a  justice  of  the 
peace.  It  has,  of  necessity,  in  any  crisis  of  the  state, 
the  absolute  powers  of  a  Dictator.  The  existing  Ad- 
ministration is  entitled  to  the  utmost  candor.  It  is  to 
be  thanked  for  its  angelic  virtue,  compared  with  any  ex- 
ecutive experiences  with  which  we  have  been  familiar. 
But  the  times  will  not  allow  us  to  indulge  in  compli- 
ment. I  wish  I  saw  in  the  people  that  inspiration  which, 
if  Government  would  not  obey  the  same,  would  leave 
the  Government  behind  and  create  on  the  moment 
the  means  and  executors  it  wanted.  Better  the  war 
should  more  dangerously  threaten  us,  —  should  threaten 
fracture  in  what  is  still  whole,  and  punish  us  with 
burned  capitals  and  slaughtered  regiments,  and  so  exas- 
perate the  people  to  energy,  exasperate  our  nationality. 
There  are  Scriptures  written  invisibly  on  men's  hearts, 
whose  letters  do  not  come  out  until  they  are  enraged. 
They  can  be  read  by  war- fires,  and  by  eyes  in  the  last 
peril. 

We  cannot  but  remember  that  there  have  been  days 
in  American  history,  when,  if  the  Free  States  had  done 
their  duty,  Slavery  had  been  blocked  by  an  immovable 


234  AMERICAN    CIVILIZATION. 

barrier,  and  our  recent  calamities  forever  precluded. 
The  Free  States  yielded,  and  every  compromise  was 
surrender  and  invited  new  demands.  Here  again  is  a 
new  occasion  which  Heaven  offers  to  sense  and  virtue. 
It  looks  as  if  we  held  the  fate  of  the  fairest  possession 
of  mankind  in  our  hands,  to  be  saved  by  our  firmness 
or  to  be  lost  by  hesitation. 

The  one  power  that  has  legs  long  enough  and  strong 
enough  to  wade  across  the  Potomac  offers  itself  at  this 
hour  ;  the  one  strong  enough  to  bring  all  the  civility 
up  to  the  height  of  that  which  is  best,  prays  now  at  the 
door  of  Congress  for  leave  to  move.  Emancipation  is 
the  demand  of  civilization.  That  is  a  principle  ;  every- 
thing else  is  an  intrigue.  This  is  a  progressive  policy, 
puts  the  whole  people  in  healthy,  productive,  amiable 
position,  puts  every  man  in  the  South  in  just  and  nat- 
ural relations  with  every  man  in  the  North,  laborer  with 
laborer. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  unfold  the  details  of  the  proj- 
ect of  Emancipation.  It  has  been  stated  with  great 
ability  by  several  of  its  leading  advocates.  I  will  only 
advert  to  some  leading  points  of  the  argument,  at  the 
risk  of  repeating  the  reasons  of  others.  The  war  is 
welcome  to  the  Southerner  ;  a  chivalrous  sport  to  him, 
like  hunting,  and  suits  his  semi-civilized  condition.  On 
the  climbing  scale  of  progress,  he  is  just  up  to  war,  and 
has  never  appeared  to  such  advantage  as  in  the  last 
twelvemonth.  It  does  not  suit  us.  We  are  advanced 
some  ages  on  the  war-state,  —  to  trade,  art  and  general 
cultivation.  His  laborer  works  for  him  at  home,  so  that 
he  loses  no  labor  by  the  war.  All  our  soldiers  are  la- 
borers ;  so  that  the  South,  with  its  inferior  numbers,  is 
almost  on  a  footing  in  effective  war-population  with  the 


AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION.  235 

North.  Again,  as  long  as  we  fight  without  any  affirma- 
tive step  taken  by  the  Government,  any  word  intimat- 
ing forfeiture  in  the  rebel  States  of  their  old  privileges 
under  the  law,  they  and  we  fight  on  the  same  side,  for 
Slavery.  Again,  if  we  conquer  the  enemy,  —  what 
then  ?  We  shall  still  have  to  keep  him  under,  and  it 
will  cost  as  much  to  hold  him  down  as  it  did  to  get  him 
down.  Then  comes  the  summer,  and  the  fever  will 
drive  the  soldiers  home  ;  next  winter  we  must  begin  at 
the  beginning,  and  conquer  him  over  again.  What  use 
then  to  take  a  fort,  or  a  privateer,  or  get  possession  of 
an  inlet,  or  capture  a  regiment  of  rebels  ? 

But  one  weapon  we  hold  which  is  sure.  Congress 
can,  by  edict,  as  a  part  of  the  military  defence  which  it 
is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  provide,  abolish  Slavery,  and 
pay  for  such  slaves  as  we  ought  to  pay  for.  Then  the 
slaves  near  our  armies  will  come  to  us  ;  those  in  the 
interior  will  know  in  a  week  what  their  rights  are,  and 
will,  where  opportunity  offers,  prepare  to  take  them. 
Instantly,  the  armies  that  now  confront  you  must  run 
home  to  protect  their  estates,  and  must  stay  there,  and 
your  enemies  will  disappear. 

There  can  be  no  safety  until  this  step  is  taken.  We 
fancy  that  the  endless  debate,  emphasized  by  the  crime 
and  by  the  cannons  of  this  war,  has  brought  the  Free 
States  to  some  conviction  that  it  can  never  go  well  with 
us  whilst  this  mischief  of  Slavery  remains  in  our  poli- 
tics, and  that  by  concert  or  by  might  we  must  put  an 
end  to  it.  But  we  have  too  much  experience  of  the 
futility  of  an  easy  reliance  on  the  momentary  good  dis- 
positions of  the  public.  There  does  exist,  perhaps,  a 
popular  will  that  the  Union  shall  not  be  broken,  —  that 
our  trade,  and  therefore  our  laws,  must  have  the  whole 


236  AMERICAN  CIVILIZATION. 

breadth  of  the  continent,  and  from  Canada  to  the  Gulf. 
But,  since  this  is  the  rooted  belief  and  will  of  the  peo- 
ple, so  much  the  more  are  they  in  danger,  when  impa- 
tient of  defeats,  or  impatient  of  taxes,  to  go  with  a  rush 
for  some  peace  ;  and  what  kind  of  peace  shall  at  that 
moment  be  easiest  attained,  they  will  make  concessions 
for  it,  —  will  give  up  the  slaves,  and  the  whole  torment 
of  the  past  half-century  will  come  back  to  be  endured 
anew. 

Neither  do  I  doubt,  if  such  a  composition  should  take 
place,  that  the  Southerners  will  come  back  quietly  and 
politely,  leaving  their  haughty  dictation.  It  will  be  an 
era  of  good  feelings.  There  will  be  a  lull  after  so  loud 
a  storm ;  and,  no  doubt,  there  will  be  discreet  men  from 
that  section  who  will  earnestly  strive  to  inaugurate 
more  moderate  and  fair  administration  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  the  North  will  for  a  time  have  its  full  share 
and  more,  in  place  and  counsel.  But  this  will  not  last ; 
—  not  for  want  of  sincere  good- will  in  sensible  South- 
erners, but  because  Slavery  will  again  speak  through 
them  its  harsh  necessity.  It  cannot  live  but  by  injus- 
tice, and  it  will  be  unjust  and  violent  to  the  end  of 
the  world. 

The  power  of  Emancipation  is  this,  that  it  alters  the 
atomic  social  constitution  of  the  Southern  people.  Now, 
their  interest  is  in  keeping  out  white  labor  ;  then,  when 
they  must  pay  wages,  their  interest  will  be  to  let  it  in, 
to  get  the  best  labor,  and,  if  they  fear  their  blacks,  to 
invite  Irish,  German  and  American  laborers.  Thus, 
whilst  Slavery  makes  and  keeps  disunion,  Emancipation 
removes  the  whole  objection  to  union.  Emancipation 
at  one  stroke  elevates  the  poor  white  of  the  South,  and 
identifies  his  interest  with  that  of  the  Northern  laborer. 


AMERICAN   CIVILIZATION.  237 

Now,  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  simple  and  generous, 
why  should  not  this  great  right  be  done  ?  Why  should 
hot  America  be  capable  of  a  second  stroke  for  the  well- 
being  of  the  human  race,  as  eighty  or  ninety  years  ago 
she  was  for  the  first,  —  of  an  affirmative  step  in  the  in- 
terests of  human  civility,  urged  on  her,  too,  not  by  any 
romance  of  sentiment,  but  by  her  own  extreme  perils  ? 
It  is  very  certain  that  the  statesman  who  shall  break 
through  the  cobwebs  of  doubt,  fear  and  petty  cavil  that 
lie  in  the  way,  will  be  greeted  by  the  unanimous  thanks 
of  mankind.  Men  reconcile  themselves  very  fast  to  a 
bold  and  good  measure  when  once  it  is  taken,  though 
they  condemned  it  in  advance.  A  week  before  the  two 
Captive  commissioners  were  surrendered  to  England, 
every  one  thought  it  could  not  be  done  :  it  would  divide 
the  North.  It  was  done,  and  in  two  days  all  agreed  it 
Was  the  right  action.  And  this  action,  wliich  costs  so 
little  (the  parties  injured  by  it  being  such  a  handful 
that  they  can  very  easily  be  indemnified),  rids  the 
world,  at  one  stroke,  of  this  degrading  nuisance,  the 
cause  of  war  and  ruin  to  nations.  This  measure  at 
once  puts  all  parties  right.  This  is  borrowing,  as  I 
said,  the  omnipotence  of  a  principle.  What  is  so  fool- 
ish as  the  terror  lest  the  blacks  should  be  made  furious 
by  freedom  and  wages  ?  It  is  denying  these  that  is  the 
outrage,  and  makes  the  danger  from  the  blacks.  But 
justice  satisfies  everybody,  —  white  man,  red  man,  yel- 
low man  and  black  man.  All  like  wages,  and  the  ap- 
petite grows  by  feeding. 

But  this  measure,  to  be  effectual,  must  come  speed- 
ily. The  weapon  is  slipping  out  of  our  hands.  "  Time," 
say  the  Indian  Scriptures,  "  drinketh  up  the  essence  of 
every  great  and  noble  action  which  ought  to  be  per- 
formed, and  which  is  delayed  in  the  execution." 


238  AMERICAN   CIVILIZATION. 

I  hope  it  is  not  a  fatal  objection  to  this  policy  that  it 
is  simple  and  beneficent  thoroughly,  which  is  the  attri- 
bute of  a  moral  action.  An  unprecedented  material 
prosperity  has  not  tended  to  make  us  Stoics  or  Chris- 
tians. But  the  laws  by  which  the  universe  is  organized 
reappear  at  every  point,  and  will  rule  it.  The  end  of 
all  political  struggle  is  to  establish  morality  as  the  basis 
of  all  legislation.  It  is  not  free  institutions,  it  is  not  a 
republic,  it  is  not  a  democracy,  that  is  the  end,  —  no, 
but  only  the  means.  Morality  is  the  object  of  govern- 
ment. We  want  a  state  of  things  in  which  crime  shall 
not  pay.  Tin's  is  the  consolation  on  which  we  rest  in 
the  darkness  of  the  future  and  the  afflictions  of  to-day, 
that  the  government  of  the  world  is  moral,  and  does 
forever  destroy  what  is  not.  It  is  the  maxim  of  natural 
philosophers  that  the  natural  forces  wear  out  in  time 
all  obstacles,  and  take  place  :  and  it  is  the  maxim  of 
history  that  victory  always  falls  at  last  where  it  ought 
to  fall  ;  or,  there  is  perpetual  march  and  progress  to 
ideas.  But,  in  either  case,  no  link  of  the  chain  can 
drop  out.  Nature  works  through  her  appointed  ele- 
ments ;  and  ideas  must  work  through  the  brains  and 
the  arms  of  good  and  brave  men,  or  they  are  no  better 
than  dreams. 

Since  the  above  pages  were  written,  President  Lin- 
coln has  proposed  to  Congress  that  the  Government 
shall  co-operate  with  any  State  that  shall  enact  a  grad- 
ual abolishment  of  Slavery.  In  the  recent  series  of  na- 
tional successes,  this  Message  is  the  best.  It  marks 
the  happiest  day  in  the  political  year.  The  American 
Executive  ranges  itself  for  the  first  time  on  the  side  of 
freedom.  If  Congress  has  been  backward,  the  Presi- 


AMERICAN   CIVILIZATION.  239 

dent  has  advanced.  This  state-paper  is  the  more  inter- 
esting that  it  appears  to  be  the  President's  individual 
act,  done  under  a  strong  sense  of  duty.  He  speaks  his 
own  thought  in  his  own  style.  All  thanks  and  honor  to 
the  Head  of  the  State  !  The  Message  has  been  received 
throughout  the  country  with  praise,  and,  we  doubt  not, 
with  more  pleasure  than  has  been  spoken.  If  Congress 
accords  with  the  President,  it  is  not  yet  too  late  to  begin 
the  emancipation  ;  but  we  think  it  will  always  be  too 
late  to  make  it  gradual.  All  experience  agrees  that  it 
should  be  immediate.  More  and  better  than  the  Presi- 
dent has  spoken  shall,  perhaps,  the  effect  of  this  Mes- 
sage be,  —  but,  we  are  sure,  not  more  or  better  than  he 
hoped  in  his  heart,  when,  thoughtful  of  alt  the  complex- 
ities of  his  position,  he  penned  these  cautious  words. 


THE 

EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION. 

AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  IN  BOSTON  IN  SEPTEMBER,  1862. 


THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMA- 
TION. 


IN  so  many  arid  forms  which  States  incrust  them- 
selves with,  once  in  a  century,  if  so  often,  a  poetic  act 
and  record  occur.  These  are  the  jets  of  thought  into 
affairs,  when,  roused  by  danger  or  inspired  by  genius, 
the  political  leaders  of  the  day  break  the  else  insur- 
mountable routine  of  class  and  local  legislation,  and 
take  a  step  forward  in  the  direction  of  catholic  and  uni- 
versal interests.  Every  step  in  the  history  of  political 
liberty  is  a  sally  of  the  human  mind  into  the  untried 
Future,  and  has  the  interest  of  genius,  and  is  fruitful  in 
heroic  anecdotes.  Liberty  is  a  slow  fruit.  It  comes, 
like  religion,  for  short  periods,  and  in  rare  conditions, 
as  if  awaiting  a  culture  of  the  race  which  shall  make  it 
organic  and  permanent.  Such  moments  of  expansion  in 
modern  history  were  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  the 
plantation  of  America,  the  English  Commonwealth  of 
1648,  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence  in 
1776,  the  British  emancipation  of  slaves  in  the  West 
Indies,  the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill,  the  repeal  of 
the  Corn-Laws,  the  Magnetic  Ocean-Telegraph,  though 
yet  imperfect,  the  passage  of  the  Homestead  Bill  in 
the  last  Congress,  and  now,  eminently,  President  Lin- 
coln's Proclamation  on  the  twenty-second  of  September. 
These  are  acts  of  great  scope,  working  on  a  long  future 
and  on  permanent  interests,  and  honoring  alike  those 


244       THE  EMANCIPATION   PROCLAMATION. 

who  initiate  and  those  who  receive  them.  These  meas- 
ures provoke  no  noisy  joy,  but  are  received  into  a  sym- 
pathy so  deep  as  to  apprise  us  that  mankind  are  greater 
and  better  than  we  know.  At  such  times  it  appears  as 
if  a  new  public  were  created  to  greet  the  new  event.  It 
is  as  when  an  orator,  having  ended  the  compliments  and 
pleasantries  with  which  he  conciliated  attention,  and 
having  run  over  the  superficial  fitness  and  commodities 
of  the  measure  he  urges,  suddenly,  lending  himself  to 
some  happy  inspiration,  announces  with  vibrating  voice 
the  grand  human  principles  involved  ;  —  the  bravos  and 
wits  who  greeted  him  loudly  thus  far  are  surprised  and 
overawed  ;  a  new  audience  is  found  in  the  heart  of  the 
assembly,  —  an  audience  hitherto  passive  and  uncon- 
cerned, now  at  last  so  searched  and  kindled  that  they 
come  forward,  every  one  a  representative  of  mankind, 
standing  for  all  nationalities. 

The  extreme  moderation  with  which  the  President 
advanced  to  his  design,  —  his  long-avowed  expectant 
policy,  as  if  he  chose  to  be  strictly  the  executive  of  the 
best  public  sentiment  of  the  country,  waiting  only  till  it 
should  be  unmistakably  pronounced,  —  so  fair  a  mind 
that  none  ever  listened  so  patiently  to  such  extreme 
varieties  of  opinion,  —  so  reticent  that  his  decision  lias 
taken  all  parties  by  surprise,  whilst  yet  it  is  just  the 
sequel  of  his  prior  acts,  —  the  firm  tone  in  whicli  he  an- 
nounces it,  without  inflation  or  surplusage,  —  all  these 
have  bespoken  such  favor  to  the  act,  that,  great  as  the 
popularity  of  the  President  has  been,  we  are  beginning 
to  think  that  we  have  underestimated  the  capacity  and 
virtue  which  the  Divine  Providence  has  made  an  instru- 
ment of  benefit  so  vast.  He  has  been  permitted  to  do 
more  for  America  than  any  other  American  man.  He 


THE   EMANCIPATION   PROCLAMATION.        245 

is  well  entitled  to  the  most  indulgent  construction.  For- 
get all  that  we  thought  shortcomings,  every  mistake, 
every  delay.  In  the  extreme  embarrassments  of  his 
part,  call  these  endurance,  wisdom,  magnanimity  ;  illu- 
minated, as  they  now  are,  by  this  dazzling  success. 

When  we  consider  the  immense  opposition  that  has 
been  neutralized  or  converted  by  the  progress  of  the 
war  (for  it  is  not  long  since  the  President  anticipated 
the  resignation  of  a  large  number  of  officers  in  tlu 
army,  and  the  secession  of  three  States,  on  the  promul- 
gation of  this  policy),  —  when  we  see  how  the  great 
stake  which  foreign  nations  hold  in  our  affairs  has  re- 
cently brought  every  European  power  as  a  client  into 
this  court,  and  it  became  every  day  more  apparent  what 
gigantic  and  what  remote  interests  were  to  be  affected 
by  the  decision  of  the  President,  —  one  can  hardly  say 
the  deliberation  was  too  long.  Against  all  timorous 
counsels  he  had  the  courage  to  seize  the  moment  ;  and 
such  was  his  position,  and  such  the  felicity  attending  the 
action,  that  he  has  replaced  Government  in  the  good 
graces  of  mankind.  "  Better  is  virtue  in  the  sovereign 
than  plenty  in  the  season,"  say  the  Chinese.  'T  is  won- 
derful what  power  is,  and  how  ill  it  is  used,  and  how  its 
ill  use  makes  life  mean,  and  the  sunshine  dark.  Life 
in  America  had  lost  much  of  its  attraction  in  the  later 
years.  The  virtues  of  a  good  magistrate  undo  a  world 
of  mischief,  and,  because  Nature  works  with  rectitude, 
seem  vastly  more  potent  than  the  acts  of  bad  governors, 
which  are  ever  tempered  by  the  good-nature  in  the  peo- 
ple, and  the  incessant  resistance  which  fraud  and  vio-: 
lence  encounter.  The  acts  of  good  governors  work  a 
geometrical  ratio,  as  one  midsummer  day  seems  to  re- 
pair the  damage  of  a  year  of  war. 


246      THE   EMANCIPATION   PROCLAMATION. 

A  day  which  most  of  us  dared  not  hope  to  see,  an 
event  worth  the  dreadful  war,  worth  its  costs  and  un- 
certainties, seems  now  to  be  close  before  us.  October, 
November,  December  will  have  passed  over  beating 
hearts  and  plotting  brains  :  then  the  hour  will  strike, 
and  all  men  of  African  descent  who  have  faculty  enough 
to  find  their  way  to  our  lines  are  assured  of  the  protec- 
tion of  American  law. 

It  is  by  no  means  necessary  that  this  measure  should 
be  suddenly  marked  by  any  signal  results  on  the  ne- 
groes or  on  the  Rebel  masters.  The  force  of  the  act  is 
that  it  commits  the  country  to  this  justice,  —  that  it 
compels  the  innumerable  officers,  civil,  military,  naval, 
of  the  Republic  to  range  themselves  on  the  line  of  this 
equity.  It  draws  the  fashion  to  this  side.  It  is  not  a 
measure  that  admits  of  being  taken  back.  Done,  it  can- 
not be  undone  by  a  new  Administration.  For  slavery 
overpowers  the  disgust  of  the  moral  sentiment  only 
through  immemorial  usage.  It  cannot  be  introduced 
as  an  improvement  of  the  nineteenth  century.  This  act 
makes  that  the  lives  of  our  heroes  have  not  been  sac- 
rificed in  vain.  It  makes  a  victory  of  our  defeats.  Our 
hurts  are  healed  ;  the  health  of  the  nation  is  repaired. 
With  a  victory  like  this,  we  can  stand  many  disasters. 
It  does  not  promise  the  redemption  of  the  black  race  ; 
that  lies  not  with  us  :  but  it  relieves  it  of  our  opposition. 
The  President  by  this  act  has  paroled  all  the  slaves  in 
America  ;  they  will  no  more  fight  against  us  :  and  it  re- 
lieves our  race  once  for  all  of  its  crime  and  false  posi- 
tion. The  first  condition  of  success  is  secured  in  put- 
ting ourselves  right.  We  have  recovered  ourselves 
from  our  false  position,  and  planted  ourselves  on  a  law 
of  Nature  : 


THE   EMANCIPATION   PROCLAMATION.        247 

"If  that  fail, 

The  pillared  firmament  is  rottenness, 
And  earth's  base  built  on  stubble." 

The  Government  has  assured  itself  of  the  best  constitu- 
ency in  the  world  :  every  spark  of  intellect,  every  vir- 
tuous feeling,  every  religious  heart,  every  man  of  honor, 
every  poet,  every  philosopher,  the  generosity  of  the 
cities,  the  health  of  the  country,  the  strong*  arms  of  the 
mechanic,  the  endurance  of  farmers,  the  passionate  con- 
science of  women,  the  sympathy  of  distant  nations,  —  all 
rally  to  its  support. 

Of  course,  we  are  assuming  the  firmness  of  the  policy 
thus  declared.  It  must  not  be  a  paper  proclamation. 
We  confide  that  Mr.  Lincoln  is  in  earnest,  and,  as  he 
has  been  slow  in  making  up  his  mind,  has  resisted 
the  importunacy  of  parties  and  of  events  to  the  latest 
moment,  he  will  be  as  absolute  in  his  adhesion.  Not 
only  will  he  repeat  and  follow  up  his  stroke,  but  the 
nation  will  add  its  irresistible  strength.  If  the  ruler 
has  duties,  so  has  the  citizen.  In  times  like  these,  when 
the  nation  is  imperilled,  what  man  can,  without  shame, 
receive  good  news  from  day  to  day  without  giving  good 
news  of  himself  ?  What  right  has  any  one  to  read  in 
the  journals  tidings  of  victories,  if  he  has  not  bought 
them  by  his  own  valor,  treasure,  personal  sacrifice,  or 
by  service  as  good  in  his  own  department  ?  With  this 
blot  removed  from  our  national  honor,  this  heavy  load 
lifted  off  the  national  heart,  we  shall  not  fear  hence- 
forward to  show  our  faces  among  mankind.  We  shall 
cease  to  be  hypocrites  and  pretenders,  but  what  we  have 
styled  our  free  institutions  will  be  such. 

In  the  light  of  this  event  the  public  distress  begins  to 
be  removed.  What  if  the  brokers'  quotations  shov  our 


248       THE   EMANCIPATION   PROCLAMATION. 

Stocks  discredited,  and  the  gold  dollar  costs  one  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  cents  ?  These  tables  are  fallacious. 
Every  acre  in  the  Free  States  gained  substantial  value 
on  the  twenty-second  of  September.  The  cause  of  dis- 
union and  war  has  been  reached  and  begun  to  be  re- 
moved. Every  man's  house-lot  and  garden  are  relieved 
of  the  malaria  which  the  purest  winds  and  strongest 
sunshine  could  not  penetrate  and  purge.  The  territory 
of  the  Union  shines  to-day  with  a  lustre  which  every 
European  emigrant  can  discern  from  far  ;  a  sign  of  in- 
most security  and  permanence.  Is  it  feared  that  taxes 
will  check  immigration  ?  That  depends  on  what  the 
taxes  are  spent  for.  If  they  go  to  fill  up  this  yawning 
Dismal  Swamp,  which  engulfed  armies  and  populations, 
and  created  plague,  and  neutralized  hitherto  all  the 
vast  capabilities  of  this  continent,  —  then  this  taxation, 
which  makes  the  land  wholesome  and  habitable,  and  will 
draw  all  men  unto  it,  is  the  best  investment  in  which 
property-holder  ever  lodged  his  earnings. 

Whilst  we  have  pointed  out  the  opportuneness  of  the 
Proclamation,  it  remains  to  be  said  that  the  President 
had  no  choice.  He  might  look  wistfully  for  what  vari- 
ety of  courses  lay  open  to  him  ;  every  line  but  one  was 
closed  up  with  fire.  This  one,  too,  bristled  with  danger, 
but  through  it  was  the  sole  safety.  The  measure  he  has 
adopted  was  imperative.  It  is  wonderful  to  see  the 
unseasonable  senility  of  what  is  called  the  Peace  Party, 
through  all  its  masks,  blinding  their  eyes  to  the  main 
feature  of  the  war,  namely,  its  inevitableness.  The  war 
existed  long  before  the  cannonade  of  Sumter,  and  could 
not  be  postponed.  It  might  have  begun  otherwise  or 
elsewhere,  but  war  was  in  the  minds  and  bones  of  the 
combatants,  it  was  written  on  the  iron  leaf,  and  you 


THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.        249 

might  as  easily  dodge  gravitation.  If  we  had  consented 
to  a  peaceable  secession  of  the  Rebels,  the  divided  sen- 
timent of  the  Border  States  made  peaceable  secession 
impossible,  the  insatiable  temper  of  the  South  made  it 
impossible,  and  the  slaves  on  the  border,  wherever  the 
border  might  be,  were  an  incessant  fuel  to  rekindle  the 
fire.  Give  the  Confederacy  New  Orleans,  Cliarleston, 
and  Richmond,  and  they  would  have  demanded  St.  Louis 
and  Baltimore.  Give  them  these,  and  they  would  have 
insisted  on  Washington.  Give  them  Washington,  and 
they  would  have  assumed  the  army  and  navy,  and, 
through  these,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston.  It 
looks  as  if  the  battle-field  would  have  been  at  least  as 
large  in  that  event  as  it  is  now.  The  war  was  formida- 
ble, but  could  not  be  avoided.  The  war  was  and  is  an 
immense  mischief,  but  brought  with  it  the  immense  ben- 
efit of  drawing  a  line  and  rallying  the  Free  States  to  fix 
it  impassably,  —  preventing  the  whole  force  of  Southern 
connection  and  influence  throughout  the  North  from 
distracting  every  city  with  endless  confusion,  detach- 
ing that  force  and  reducing  it  to  handfuls,  and,  in  the 
progress  of  hostilities,  disinfecting  us  of  our  habitual 
proclivity,  through  the  affection  of  trade  and  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  Democratic  party,  to  follow  Southern 
leading. 

These  necessities  which  have  dictated  the  conduct  of 
the  Federal  Government  are  overlooked  especially  by 
our  foreign  critics.  The  popular  statement  of  the  op- 
ponents of  the  war  abroad  is  the  impossibility  of  our 
success.  "  If  you  could  add,"  say  they,  "  to  your 
strength  the  whole  army  of  England,  of  France  and  of 
Austria,  you  could  not  coerce  eight  millions  of  people 
to  come  under  this  Government  against  their  will." 


250        THE   EMANCIPATION   PROCLAMATION. 

This  is  an  odd  thing  for  an  Englishman,  a  Frenchman, 
or  an  Austrian  to  say,  who  remembers  Europe  of  the 
last  seventy  years,  —  the  condition  of  Italy,  until  1859, 
—  of  Poland  since  1793,  —  of  France,  of  French  Al- 
giers, —  of  British  Ireland,  and  British  India.  But, 
granting  the  truth,  rightly  read,  of  the  historical  aphor- 
ism, that  "  the  people  always  conquer,"  it  is  to  be  noted 
that,  in  the  Southern  States,  the  tenure  of  land  and  the 
local  laws,  with  slavery,  give  the  social  system  not  a 
democratic  but  an  aristocratic  complexion  ;  and  those 
States  have  shown  every  year  a  more  hostile  and  ag- 
gressive temper,  until  the  instinct  of  self-preservation 
forced  us  into  the  war.  And  the  aim  of  the  war  on  our 
part  is  indicated  by  the  aim  of  the  President's  Procla- 
mation, namely,  to  break  up  the  false  combination  of 
Southern  society,  to  destroy  the  piratic  feature  in  it 
which  makes  it  our  enemy  only  as  it  is  the  enemy  of 
the  human  race,  and  so  allow  its  reconstruction  on  a  just 
and  healthful  basis.  Then  new  affinities  will  act,  the 
old  repulsion  will  cease,  and,  the  cause  of  war  being  re- 
moved, Nature  and  trade  may  be  trusted  to  establish  a 
lasting  peace. 

We  think  we  cannot  overstate  the  wisdom  and  benefit 
of  this  act  of  the  Government.  The  malignant  cry  of 
the  Secession  press  within  the  Free  States,  and  the  re- 
cent action  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  are  decisive  as 
to  its  efficiency  and  correctness  of  aim.  Not  less  so 
is  the  silent  joy  which  has  greeted  it  in  all  generous 
hearts,  and  the  new  hope  it  has  breathed  into  the  world. 
It  was  well  to  delay  the  steamers  at  the  wharves  until 
this  edict  could  be  put  on  board.  It  will  be  an  insur- 
ance to  the  ship  as  it  goes  plunging  through  the  sea 
with  glad  tidings  to  all  people.  Happy  are  the  young, 


THE   EMANCIPATION   PROCLAMATION.       251 

who  find  the  pestilence  cleansed  out  of  the  earth,  leav- 
ing open  to  them  an  honest  career.  Happy  the  old, 
who  see  Nature  purified  before  they  depart.  Do  not 
let  the  dying  die  :  hold  them  back  to  this  world,  until 
you  have  charged  their  ear  and  heart  with  this  message 
to  other  spiritual  societies,  announcing  the  melioration 
of  our  planet  : 

"  Incertaiuties  now  crown  themselves  assured, 
And  Peace  proclaims  olives  of  endless  age." 

Meantime  that  ill-fated,  much-injured  race  which  the 
Proclamation  respects  will  lose  somewhat  of  the  dejec- 
tion sculptured  for  ages  in  their  bronzed  countenance, 
uttered  in  the  wailing  of  their  plaintive  music,  —  a  race 
naturally  benevolent,  docile,  industrious,  and  whose  very 
miseries  sprang  from  their  great  talent  for  usefulness, 
which,  in  a  more  moral  age,  will  not  only  defend  their 
independence,  but  will  give  them  a  rank  among  nations. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


REMARKS  AT   THE  FUNERAL   SERVICES  HELD   IN   CONCORD, 
APRIL  19.18G5. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


WE  meet  under  the  gloom  of  a  calamity  which 
darkens  down  over  the  minds  of  good  men  in  all  civil 
society,  as  the  fearful  tidings  travel  over  sea,  over  land, 
from  country  to  country,  like  the  shadow  of  an  uncal- 
culated  eclipse  over  the  planet.  Old  as  history  is,  and 
manifold  as  are  its  tragedies,  I  doubt  if  any  death  has 
caused  so  much  pain  to  mankind  as  this  has  caused,  or 
will  cause,  on  its  announcement  ;  and  this,  not  so  much 
because  nations  are  by  modern  arts  brought  so  closely 
together,  as  because  of  the  mysterious  hopes  and  fears 
which,  in  the  present  day,  are  connected  with  the  name 
and  institutions  of  America. 

In  this  country,  on  Saturday,  every  one  was  struck 
dumb,  and  saw  at  first  only  deep  below  deep,  as  he 
meditated  on  the  ghastly  blow.  And  perhaps,  at  this 
hour,  when  the  coffin  which  contains  the  dust  of  the 
President  sets  forward  on  its  long  march  through 
mourning  States,  on  its  way  to  his  home  in  Illinois,  we 
might  well  be  silent,  and  suffer  the  awful  voices  of  the 
time  to  thunder  to  us.  Yes,  but  that  first  despair  was 
brief :  the  man  was  not  so  to  be  mourned.  He  was 
the  most  active  and  hopeful  of  men  ;  and  his  work  had 
not  perished ;  but  acclamations  of  praise  for  the  task 
he  had  accomplished  burst  out  into  a  song  of  triumph, 
which  even  tears  for  his  death  cannot  keep  down. 


256  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

The  President  stood  before  us  as  a  man  of  the  peo- 
ple. He  was  thoroughly  American,  had  never  crossed 
the  sea,  had  never  been  spoiled  by  English  insularity 
or  French  dissipation  ;  a  quite  native,  aboriginal  man, 
as  an  acorn  from  the  oak  ;  no  aping  of  foreigners,  no 
frivolous  accomplishments  ;  Kentuckian  born,  working 
on  a  farm,  a  flatboatman,  a  captain  in  the  Black  Hawk 
war,  a  country  lawyer,  a  representative  in  the  rural 
Legislature  of  Illinois  ;  —  on  such  modest  foundations 
the  broad  structure  of  his  fame  was  laid.  How  slowly, 
and  yet  by  happily  prepared  steps,  he  came  to  his 
place.  All  of  us  remember,  —  it  is  only  a  history  of 
five  or  six  years,  —  the  surprise  and  the  disappointment 
of  the  country  at  his  first  nomination  by  the  Convention 
at  Chicago.  Mr.  Seward,  then  in  the  culmination  of 
his  good  fame,  was  the  favorite  of  the  Eastern  States. 
And  when  the  new  and  comparatively  unknown  name 
of  Lincoln  was  announced,  (notwithstanding  the  report 
of  the  acclamations  of  that  Convention,)  we  heard  the 
result  coldly  and  sadly.  It  seemed  too  rash,  on  a 
purely  local  reputation  to  build  so  grave  a  trust  in  such 
anxious  times  ;  and  men  naturally  talked  of  the  chances 
in  politics  as  incalculable.  But  it  turned  out  not  to  be 
chance.  The  profound  good  opinion  which  the  people 
of  Illinois  and  of  the  West  had  conceived  of  him,  and 
which  they  had  imparted  to  their  colleagues  that  they 
also  might  justify  themselves  to  their  constituents  at 
home,  was  not  rash,  though  they  did  not  begin  to  know 
the  riches  of  his  worth. 

A  plain  man  of  the  people,  an  extraordinary  fortune 
attended  him.  He  offered  no  shining  qualities  at  the 
first  encounter  ;  he  did  not  offend  by  superiority.  He 
iuad  a  face  and  manner  which  disarmed  suspicion,  which 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  257 

inspired  confidence,  which  confirmed  good- will.  He  was 
a  man  without  vices.  He  had  a  strong  sense  of  duty, 
which  it  was  very  easy  for  him  to  obey.  Then,  he  had 
what  farmers  call  a  long  head  ;  was  excellent  in  work- 
ing out  the  sum  for  himself  ;  in  arguing  his  case  and 
convincing  you  fairly  and  firmly.  Then  it  turned  out 
that  he  was  a  great  worker  ;  had  prodigious  faculty 
of  performance  ;  worked  easily.  A  good  worker  is  so 
rare  ;  everybody  has  some  disabling  quality.  In  a  host 
of  young  men  that  start  together  and  promise  so  many 
brilliant  leaders  for  the  next  asje,  each  fails  on  trial ; 
one  by  bad  health,  one  by  conceit,  or  by  love  of  pleas- 
ure, or  lethargy,  or  an  ugly  temper,  —  each  has  some 
disqualifying  fault  that  throws  him  out  of  the  career. 
But  this  man  was  sound  to  the  core,  cheerful,  persistent, 
all  right  for  labor,  and  liked  nothing  so  well. 

Then,  he  had  a  vast  good-nature,  which  made  him 
tolerant  and  accessible  to  all  ;  fair-minded,  leaning  to 
the  claim  of  the  petitioner  ;  affable,  and  not  sensible  to 
the  affliction  which  the  innumerable  visits  paid  to  him 
when  President  would  have  brought  to  any  one  else. 
And  how  this  good-nature  became  a  noble  humanity,  in 
many  a  tragic  case  which  the  events  of  the  war  brought 
to  him,  every  one  will  remember  ;  and  with  what  in- 
creasing tenderness  he  dealt  when  a  whole  race  was 
thrown  on  his  compassion.  The  poor  negro  said  of  him, 
on  an  impressive  occasion,  "  Massa  Linkum  am  ebery- 
where." 

Then,  his  broad  good-humor,  running  easily  into  jocu- 
lar talk,  in  which  he  delighted  and  in  which  he  excelled, 
was  a  rich  gift  to  this  wise  man.  It  enabled  him  to 
keep  his  secret ;  to  meet  every  kind  of  man  and  every 
rank  in  society  ;  to  take  off  the  edge  of  the  severest 
17 


258  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

decisions  ;  to  mask  his  own  purpose  and  sound  his  com- 
panion ;  and  to  catch  with  true  instinct  the  temper  of 
every  company  he  addressed.  And,  more  than  all,  it  is 
to  a  man  of  severe  labor,  in  anxious  and  exhausting 
crises,  the  natural  restorative,  good  as  sleep,  and  is  the 
protection  of  the  overdriven  brain  against  rancor  and 
insanity. 

He  is  the  author  of  a  multitude  of  good  sayings,  so 
disguised  as  pleasantries  that  it  is  certain  they  had  no 
reputation  at  first  but  as  jests  ;  and  only  later,  by  the 
very  acceptance  and  adoption  they  find  in  the  mouths 
of  millions,  turn  out  to  be  the  wisdom  of  the  hour.  I 
am  sure  if  this  man  had  ruled  in  a  period  of  less  facil- 
ity of  printing,  he  would  have  become  mythological  in 
a  very  few  years,  like  ^Esop  or  Pilpay,  or  one  of  the 
Seven  Wise  Masters,  by  his  fables  and  proverbs.  But 
the  weight  and  penetration  of  many  passages  in  his  let- 
ters, messages  and  speeches,  hidden  now  by  the  very 
closeness  of  their  application  to  the  moment,  are  des- 
tined hereafter  to  wide  fame.  What  pregnant  defini- 
tions ;  what  unerring  common  sense  ;  what  foresight  ; 
and,  on  great  occasion,  what  lofty,  and  more  than  na- 
tional, what  humane  tone  !  His  brief  speech  at  Gettys- 
burg will  not  easily  be  surpassed  by  words  on  any  re- 
corded occasion.  This,  and  one  other  American  speech, 
that  of  John  Brown  to  the  court  that  tried  him,  and  a 
part  of  Kossuth's  speech  at  Birmingham,  can  only  be 
compared  with  each  other,  and  with  no  fourth. 

His  occupying  the  chair  of  State  was  a  triumph  of 
the  good-sense  of  mankind,  and  of  the  public  conscience. 
This  middle-class  country  had  got  a  middle-class  Pres- 
ident, at  last.  Yes,  in  manners  and  sympathies,  but  not 
in  powers,  for  his  powers  were  superior.  This  man 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  259 

grew  according  to  the  need.  His  mind  mastered  the 
problem  of  the  day  ;  and,  as  the  problem  grew,  so  did 
his  comprehension  of  it.  Rarely  was  man  so  fitted  to 
the  event.  In  the  midst  of  fears  and  jealousies,  in  the 
Babel  of  counsels  and  parties,  this  man  wrought  inces- 
santly with  all  his  might  and  all  his  honesty,  laboring 
to  find  what  the  people  wanted,  and  how  to  obtain  that. 
It  cannot  be  said  there  is  any  exaggeration  of  his 
worth.  If  ever  a  man  was  fairly  tested,  he  was.  There 
was  no  lack  of  resistance,  nor  of  slander,  nor  of  ridi- 
cule. The  times  have  allowed  no  state  secrets  ;  the 
nation  has  been  in  such  ferment,  such  multitudes  had 
to  be  trusted,  that  no  secret  could  be  kept.  Every  door 
was  ajar,  and  we  know  all  that  befell. 

Then,  what  an  occasion  was  the  whirlwind  of  the 
war.  Here  was  place  for  no  holiday  magistrate,  no  fair- 
weather  sailor  ;  the  new  pilot  was  hurried  to  the  helm 
in  a  tornado.  In  four  years,  —  four  years  of  battle- 
days, —  his  endurance,  his  fertility  of  resources,  his 
magnanimity,  were  sorely  tried  and  never  found  want- 
ing There,  by  his  courage,  his  justice,  his  even  temper, 
his  fertile  counsel,  his  humanity,  he  stood  a  heroic  figure 
in  the  centre  of  a  heroic  epoch.  He  is  the  true  history 
of  the  American  people  in  his  time.  Step  by  step  he 
walked  before  them  ;  slow  with  their  slowness,  quick- 
ening his  march  by  theirs,  the  true  representative  of 
this  continent  ;  an  entirely  public  man  ;  father  of  his 
country,  the  pulse  of  twenty  millions  throbbing  in  his 
heart,  the  thought  of  their  minds  articulated  by  his 
tongue. 

Adam  Smith  remarks  that  the  axe,  which  in  Hou- 
braken's  portraits  of  British  kings  and  worthies  is  en- 
graved under  those  who  have  suffered  at  the  block, 


260  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

adds  a  certain  lofty  charm  to  the  picture.  And  who 
does  not  see,  even  in  this  tragedy  so  recent,  how  fast 
the  terror  and  ruin  of  the  massacre  are  already  burning 
into  glory  around  the  victim  ?  Far  happier  this  fate 
than  to  have  lived  to  be  wished  away  ;  to  have  watched 
the  decay  of  his  own  faculties  ;  to  have  seen,  —  per- 
haps even  he,  —  the  proverbial  ingratitude  of  states- 
men ;  to  have  seen  mean  men  preferred.  Had  he  not 
lived  long  enough  to  keep  the  greatest  promise  that 
ever  man  made  to  his  fellow-men,  —  the  practical  abo- 
lition of  slavery  ?  He  had  seen  Tennessee,  Missouri 
and  Maryland  emancipate  their  slaves.  He  had  seen 
Savannah,  Charleston  and  Richmond  surrendered  ;  had 
seen  the  main  army  of  the  rebellion  lay  down  its  arms. 
He  had  conquered  the  public  opinion  of  Canada,  Eng- 
land and  France.  Only  Washington  can  compare  with 
him  in  fortune. 

And  what  if  it  should  turn  out,  in  the  unfolding  of 
the  web,  that  he  had  reached  the  term  ;  that  .this  heroic 
deliverer  could  no  longer  serve  us  ;  that  the  rebellion 
had  touched  its  natural  conclusion,  and  what  remained 
to  be  done  required  new  and  uncommitted  hands,  —  a 
new  spirit  born  out  of  the  ashes  of  the  war  ;  and  that 
Heaven,  wishing  to  show  the  world  a  completed  bene- 
factor, shall  make  him  serve  his  country  even  more  by 
his  death  than  by  his  life  ?  Nations,  like  kings,  are  not 
good  by  facility  and  complaisance.  "  The  kindness  of 
kings  consists  in  justice  and  strength."  Easy  good- 
nature has  been  the  dangerous  foible  of  the  Republic, 
and  it  was  necessary  that  its  enemies  should  outrage  it, 
and  drive  us  to  unwonted  firmness,  to  secure  the  salva- 
tion of  this  country  in  the  next  ages. 

The  ancients  believed  in  a  serene  and  beautiful  Genius 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  261 

which  ruled  in  the  affairs  of  nations  ;  which,  with  a 
slow  but  stern  justice,  carried  forward  the  fortunes  of 
certain  chosen  houses,  weeding  out  single  offenders  or 
offending  families,  and  securing  at  last  the  firm  pros- 
perity of  the  favorites  of  Heaven.  It  was  too  narrow  a 
view  of  the  Eternal  Nemesis.  There  is  a  serene  Provi- 
dence which  rules  the  fate  of  nations,  which  makes  little 
account  of  time,  little  of  one  generation  or  race,  makes 
no  account  of  disasters,  conquers  alike  by  what  is  called 
defeat  or  by  what  is  called  victory,  thrusts  aside  enemy 
and  obstruction,  crushes  everything  immoral  as  inhu- 
man, and  obtains  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  best  race 
by  the  sacrifice  of  everything  which  resists  the  moral 
laws  of  the  world.  It  makes  its  own  instruments,  cre- 
ates the  man  for  the  time,  trains  him  in  poverty,  in- 
spires his  genius,  and  arms  him  for  his  task.  It  has 
given  every  race  its  own  talent,  and  ordains  that  only 
that  race  which  combines  perfectly  with  the  virtues  of 
all  shall  endure. 


HARVARD  COMMEMORATION 
SPEECH. 

JULY  21,  1866. 


HARVARD  COMMEMORATION 
SPEECH. 

JULY  21,  1865. 


MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN  : 

With  whatever  opinion  we  come  here,  I  think  it  is 
not  in  man  to  see,  without  a  feeling  of  pride  and  pleas- 
ure, a  tried  soldier,  the  armed  defender  of  the  right.  I 
think  that  in  these  last  years  all  opinions  have  been 
affected  by  the  magnificent  and  stupendous  spectacle 
which  Divine  Providence  has  offered  us  of  the  energies 
that  slept  in  the  children  of  this  country,  —  that  slept 
and  have  awakened.  I  see  thankfully  those  that  are 
here,  but  dim  eyes  in  vain  explore  for  some  who  are 
not. 

The  old  Greek  Heraclitus  said,  "  War  is  the  Father 
of  all  things."  He  said  it,  no  doubt,  as  science,  but  we 
of  this  day  can  repeat  it  as  political  and  social  truth. 
War  passes  the  power  of  all  chemical  solvents,  breaking 
up  the  old  adhesions  and  allowing  the  atoms  of  society 
to  take  a  new  order.  It  is  not  the  Government,  but  the 
War,  that  has  appointed  the  good  generals,  sifted  out 
the  pedants,  put  in  the  new  and  vigorous  blood.  The 
War  has  lifted  many  other  people  besides  Grant  and 
Sherman  into  their  true  places.  Even  Divine  Provi- 
dence, we  may  say,  always  seems  to  work  after  a  cer- 


266        HARVARD   COMMEMORATION   SPEECH. 

tain  military  necessity.  Every  nation  punishes  the 
General  who  is  not  victorious.  It  is  a  rule  in  games  of 
chance  that  the  cards  beat  all  the  players,  and  revolu- 
tions disconcert  and  outwit  all  the  insurgents. 

The  revolutions  carry  their  own  points,  sometimes  to 
the  ruin  of  those  who  set  them  on  foot.  The  proof  that 
war  also  is  within  the  highest  right,  is  a  marked  bene- 
factor in  the  hands  of  Divine  Providence,  is  its  morale. 
The  war  gave  back  integrity  to  this  erring  and  immoral 
nation.  It  charged  with  power,  peaceful,  amiable  men, 
to  whose  life  war  and  discord  were  abhorrent.  What 
an  infusion  of  character  went  out  from  this  and  other 
colleges  !  What  an  infusion  of  character  down  to  the 
ranks  !  The  experience  has  been  uniform  that  it  is  the 
gentle  soul  that  makes  the  firm  hero  after  all.  It  is 
easy  to  recall  the  mood  in  which  our  young  men, 
snatched  from  every  peaceful  pursuit,  went  to  the  war. 
Many  of  them  had  never  handled  a  gun.  They  said, 
"  It  is  not  in  me  to  resist.  I  go  because  I  must.  It  is 
a  duty  which  I  shall  never  forgive  myself  if  I  decline. 
I  do  not  know  that  I  can  make  a  soldier.  I  may  be 
very  clumsy.  Perhaps  I  shall  be  timid  ;  but  yon  can 
rely  on  me.  Only  one  thing  is  certain,  I  can  well  die, 
but  I  cannot  afford  to  misbehave." 

In  fact  the  infusion  of  culture  and  tender  humanity 
from  these  scholars  and  idealists  who  went  to  the  war 
in  their  own  despite,  —  God  knows  they  had  no  fury 
for  killing  their  old  friends  and  countrymen, — had  its 
signal  and  lasting  effect.  It  was  found  that  enthusi- 
asm was  a  more  potent  ally  than  science  and  muni- 
tions of  war  without  it.  "  It  is  a  principle  of  war," 
said  Napoleon,  "  that  when  you  can  use  the  thunder- 
bolt you  must  prefer  it  to  the  cannon."  Enthusiasm 


HARVARD   COMMEMORATION   SPEECH.       267 

was  the  thunderbolt.  Here  in  this  little  Massachusetts, 
in  smaller  Rhode  Island,  in  this  little  nest  of  New  Eng- 
land republics  it  flamed  out  when  the  guilty  gun  was 
aimed  at  Sumter. 

Mr.  Chairman,  standing  here  in  Harvard  College,  the 
parent  of  all  the  colleges  ;  in  Massachusetts,  the  parent 
of  all  the  North  ;  when  I  consider  her  influence  on  the 
country  as  a  principal  planter  of  the  Western  States, 
and  now,  by  her  teachers,  preachers,  journalists  and 
books,  as  well  as  by  traffic  and  production,  the  diffuser 
of  religious,  literary  and  political  opinion  ;  —  and  when 
I  see  how  irresistible  the  convictions  of  Massachusetts 
are  in  these  swarming  populations,  —  I  think  the  little 
state  bigger  than  I  knew.  When  her  blood  is  up  she 
has  a  fist  big  enough  to  knock  down  an  empire.  And 
her  blood  was  roused.  Scholars  changed  the  black  coat 
for  the  blue.  A  single  company  in  the  forty-fourth 
Massachusetts  regiment  contained  thirty-five  sons  of 
Harvard.  You  all  know  as  well  as  I  the  story  of  these 
dedicated  men,  who  knew  well  on  what  duty  they  went, 
—  whose  fathers  and  mothers  said  of  each  slaughtered 
son,  "  We  gave  him  up  when  he  enlisted."  One  mother 
said,  when  her  son  was  offered  the  command  of  the  first 
negro  regiment,  "  If  he  accepts  it,  I  shall  be  as  proud 
as  if  I  had  heard  that  he  was  shot."  These  men,  thus 
tender,  thus  high-bred,  thus  peaceable,  were  always  in 
the  front  and  always  employed.  They  might  say,  with 
their  forefathers  the  old  Norse  Vikings,  "  We  sung 
the  mass  of  lances  from  morning  until  evening."  And 
in  how  many  cases  it  chanced,  when  the  hero  had  fallen, 
they  who  came  by  night  to  his  funeral,  on  the  morrow 
returned  to  the  war-path  to  show  his  skyers  the  way  to 
death  ! 


268       HARVARD   COMMEMORATION    SPEECH. 

Ah  !  young  brothers,  all  honor  and  gratitude  to  yon, 

—  you,   manly   defenders,    Liberty's   and    Humanity's 
body-guard  !     We   shall  not  again  disparage  America, 
now  that  we  have  seen  what  men  it  will  bear.     We  see 

—  we  thank  you  for  it  —  a  new  era,  worth  to  mankind 
all  the  treasure  and  all  the  lives  it  has  cost  ;  yes,  worth 
to  the  world  the  lives  of  all  this  generation  of  Ameri- 
can men,  if  they  had  been  demanded. 


EDITORS'  ADDRESS. 

MASSACHUSETTS  QUARTERLY  REVIEW,  DECEMBER,  1847. 


EDITORS'  ADDRESS. 


THE  American  people  are  fast  opening  their  own 
destiny.  The  material  basis  is  of  such  extent  that  no 
folly  of  man  can  quite  subvert  it  ;  for  the  territory  is 
a  considerable  fraction  of  the  planet,  and  the  popula- 
tion neither  loth  nor  inexpert  to  use  their  advantages. 
Add,  that  this  energetic  race  derive  an  unprecedented 
material  power  from  the  new  arts,  from  the  expansions 
effected  by  public  schools,  cheap  postage  and  a  cheap 
press,  from  the  telescope,  the  telegraph,  the  railroad, 
steamship,  steam-ferry,  steam-mill  ;  from  domestic  ar- 
chitecture, chemical  agriculture,  from  ventilation,  from 
ice,  ether,  caoutchouc,  and  innumerable  inventions  and 
manufactures. 

A  scholar  who  has  been  reading  of  the  fabulous  mag- 
nificence of  Assyria  and  Persia,  of  Rome  and  Constan- 
tinople, leaves  his  library  and  takes  his  seat  in  a  rail- 
road-car, where  he  is  importuned  by  newsboys  with 
journals  still  wet  from  Liverpool  and  Havre,  with  tel- 
egraphic despatches  not  yet  fifty  minutes  old  from 
Buffalo  and  Cincinnati.  At  the  screams  of  the  steam- 
whistle,  the  train  quits  city  and  suburbs,  darts  away 
into  the  interior,  drops  every  man  at  his  estate  as  it 
whirls  along,  and  shows  our  traveller  what  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  powerful  and  weaponed  men,  science-armed 
and  society-armed,  sit  at  large  in  this  ample  region,  ob- 


272  EDITORS'  ADDRESS. 

scare  from  their  numbers  and  the  extent  of  the  domain. 
He  reflects  on  the  power  which  each  of  these  plain  re- 
publicans can  employ  ;  how  far  these  chains  of  inter- 
course and  travel  reach,  interlock  and  ramify  ;  what 
levers,  what  pumps,  what  exhaustive  analyses  are  ap- 
plied to  nature  for  the  benefit  of  masses  of  men.  Then 
he  exclaims,  What  a  negro-fine  royalty  is  that  of  Jam- 
schid  and  Solomon  !  What  a  substantial  sovereignty 
does  my  townsman  possess !  A  man  who  has  a  hun- 
dred dollars  to  dispose  of,  —  a  hundred  dollars  over  his 
bread,  —  is  rich  beyond  the  dreams  of  the  Caesars. 

Keep  onr  eyes  as  long  as  we  can  on  this  picture,  we 
cannot  stave  off  the  ulterior  question,  —  the  famous 
question  of  Cineas  to  Pyrrhus,  —  the  WHERE  TO  of  all 
this  power  and  population,  these  surveys  and  inventions, 
this  taxing  and  tabulating,  mill  -  privilege,  roads  and 
mines.  The  aspect  this  country  presents  is  a  certain 
maniacal  activity,  an  immense  apparatus  of  cunning 
machinery  which  turns  out,  at  last,  some  Nuremberg 
toys.  Has  it  generated,  as  great  interests  do,  any  in- 
tellectual power  ?  Where  are  the  works  of  the  imag- 
ination —  the  surest  test  of  a  national  genius  ?  At 
least  as  far  as  the  purpose  and  genius  of  America  is 
yet  reported  in  any  book,  it  is  a  sterility  and  no  genius. 

One  would  say  there  is  nothing  colossal  in  the  coun- 
try but  its  geography  and  its  material  activities  ;  that 
the  moral  and  intellectual  effects  are  not  on  the  same 
scale  with  the  trade  and  production.  There  is  no 
speech  heard  but  that  of  auctioneers,  newsboys,  and  the 
caucus.  Where  is  the  great  breath  of  the  New  World, 
the  voice  of  aboriginal  nations  opening  new  eras  with 
hymns  of  lofty  cheer  ?  Our  books  and  fine  arts  are 
imitations  ;  there  is  a  fatal  incuriosity  and  disinclination 


MASSACHUSETTS   QUARTERLY   REVIEW.       273 

in  our  educated  men  to  new  studies  and  the  interroga- 
tion of  nature.  We  have  taste,  critical  talent,  good 
professors,  good  commentators,  but  a  lack  of  male  en- 
ergy. What  more  serious  calamity  can  befall  a  people 
than  a  constitutional  duluess  and  limitation  ?  The 
moral  influence  of  the  intellect  is  wanting.  We  hearken 
in  vain  for  any  profound  voice  speaking  to  the  Amer- 
ican heart,  cheering  timid  good  men,  animating  the 
youth,  consoling  the  defeated,  and  intelligently  announc- 
ing duties  which  clothe  life  with  joy,  and  endear  the 
face  of  land  and  sea  to  men.  It  is  a  poor  consideration 
that  the  country  wit  is  precocious,  and,  as  we  say,  prac- 
tical ;  that  political  interests  on  so  broad  a  scale  as  ours 
are  administered  by  little  men  with  some  saucy  village 
talent,  by  deft  partisans,  good  cipherers  ;  strict  econo- 
mists, quite  empty  of  all  superstition. 

Conceding  these  unfavorable  appearances,  it  would 
yet  be  a  poor  pedantry  to  read  the  fates  of  this  country 
from  these  narrow  data.  On  the  contrary,  we  are  per- 
suaded that  moral  and  material  values  are  always  com- 
mensurate. Every  material  organization  exists  to  a 
moral  end,  which  makes  the  reason  of  its  existence. 
Here  are  no  books,  but  who  can  see  the  continent  with 
its  inland  and  surrounding  waters,  its  temperate  cli- 
mates, its  west-wind  breathing  vigor  through  all  the 
year,  its  confluence  of  races  so  favorable  to  the  highest 
energy,  and  the  infinite  glut  of  their  production,  with- 
out putting  new  queries  to  Destiny  as  to  the  purpose 
for  which  this  muster  of  nations  and  this  sudden  crea- 
tion of  enormous  values  is  made  ? 

This  is  equally  the  view  of  science  and  of  patriotism. 
We  hesitate  to  employ  a  word  so  much  abused  as  patri- 
otism, whose  true  sense  is  almost  the  reverse  of  its  pop- 
18 


274  EDITORS'  ADDRESS. 

ular  sense.  We  have  no  sympathy  with  that  boyish 
egotism,  hoarse  with  cheering  for  one  side,  for  one 
state,  for  one  town  :  the  right  patriotism  consists  in  the 
delight  which  springs  from  contributing  our  peculiar 
and  legitimate  advantages  to  the  benefit  of  humanity. 
Every  ?.>ot  of  soil  has  its  proper  quality  ;  the  grape  on 
two  sides  of  the  same  fence  has  new  flavors  ;  and  so 
every  acre  on  the  globe,  every  family  of  men,  every 
point  of  climate,  has  its  distinguishing  virtues.  Cer- 
tainly then  this  country  does  not  lie  here  in  the  sun 
causeless  ;  and  though  it  may  not  be  easy  to  define  its 
influence,  men  feel  already  its  emancipating  quality  in 
the  careless  self-reliance  of  the  manners,  in  the  freedom 
of  thought,  in  the  direct  roads  by  which  grievances  are 
reached  and  redressed,  and  even  in  the  reckless  and  sin- 
ister politics,  not  less  than  in  purer  expressions.  Bad 
as  it  is,  this  freedom  leads  onward  and  upward,  —  to  a 
Columbia  of  thought  and  art,  which  is  the  last  and  end- 
less end  of  Columbus's  adventure. 

Lovers  of  our  country,  but  not  always  approvers  of 
the  public  counsels,  we  should  certainly  be  glad  to  give 
good  advice  in  politics.  We  have  not  been  able  to  es- 
cape our  national  and  endemic  habit,  and  to  be  liberated 
from  interest  in  the  elections  and  in  public  affairs.  Xor 
have  we  cared  to  disfranchise  ourselves.  We  are  more 
solicitous  than  others  to  make  our  politics  clear  and 
healthful,  as  we  believe  politics  to  be  nowise  accidental 
or  exceptional,  but  subject  to  the  same  laws  with  trees, 
earths  and  acids.  We  see  that  reckless  and  destruc- 
tive fury  which  characterizes  the  lower  classes  of  Amer- 
ican society,  and  which  is  pampered  by  hundreds  of 
profligate  presses.  The  young  intriguers  who  drive  in 
bar-rooms  and  town-meetings  the  trade  of  politics,  sa- 


MASSACHUSETTS  QUARTERLY   REVIEW.      275 

gacious  only  to  seize  the  victorious  side,  have  put  the 
country  into  the  position  of  an  overgrown  bully,  and 
Massachusetts  finds  no  heart  or  head  to  give  weight 
and  efficacy  to  her  contrary  judgment.  In  hours  when 
it  seemed  only  to  need  one  just  word  from  a  man  of 
honor  to  have  vindicated  the  rights  of  millions,  and  to 
have  given  a  true  direction  to  the  first  steps  of  a  nation, 
we  have  seen  the  best  understandings  of  New  England, 
the  trusted  leaders  of  her  counsels,  constituting  a  sniv- 
elling and  despised  opposition,  clapped  on  the  back  by 
comfortable  capitalists  from  all  sections,  and  persuaded 
to  say,  We  are  too  old  to  stand  for  what  is  called  a  New 
England  sentiment  any  longer.  Rely  on  us  for  commer- 
cial representatives,  but  for  questions  of  ethics,  —  who 
knows  what  markets  may  be  opened  ?  We  are  not  well, 
we  are  not  in  our  seats,  when  justice  and  humanity  are 
to  be  spoken  for. 

We  have  a  bad  war,  many  victories,  each  of  which 
converts  the  country  into  an  immense  chanticleer  ;  and 
a  very  insincere  political  opposition.  The  country  needs 
to  be  extricated  from  its  delirium  at  once.  Public  af- 
fairs are  chained  in  the  same  law  with  private  ;  the  ret- 
ributions of  armed  States  are  not  less  sure  and  signal 
than  those  which  come  to  private  felons.  The  facility 
of  majorities  is  no  protection  from  the  natural  sequence 
of  their  own  acts.  Men  reason  badly,  but  Nature  and 
Destiny  are  logical. 

But,  whilst  we  should  think  our  pains  well  bestowed 
if  we  could  cure  the  infatuation  of  statesmen,  and  should 
be  sincerely  pleased  if  we  could  give  a  direction  to  the 
Federal  politics,  we  are  far  from  believing  politics  the 
primal  interest  of  men.  On  the  contrary,  we  hold  that 
the  laws  and  governors  cannot  possess  a  commanding 


276  EDITORS'  ADDRESS. 

interest  for  any  but  vacant  or  fanatical  people  ;  for  the 
reason  that  this  is  simply  a  formal  and  superficial  inter- 
est ;  and  men  of  a  solid  genius  are  only  interested  in 
substantial  things. 

The  State,  like  the  individual,  should  rest  on  an  ideal 
basis.  Not  only  man  but  nature  is  injured  by  the  im- 
putation that  man  exists  only  to  be  fattened  with  bread, 
but  he  lives  in  such  connection  with  Thought  and  Fact 
that  his  bread  is  surely  involved  as  one  element  thereof, 
but  is  not  its  end  and  aim.  So  the  insight  which  com- 
mands the  laws  and  conditions  of  the  true  polity  pre- 
cludes forever  all  interest  in  the  squabbles  of  parties. 
As  soon  as  men  have  tasted  the  enjoyment  of  learning, 
friendship  and  virtue,  for  which  the  State  exists,  the 
prizes  of  office  appear  polluted,  and  their  followers  out- 
easts. 

A  journal  that  would  meet  the  real  wants  of  this 
time  must  have  a  courage  and  power  sufficient  to  solve 
the  problems  which  the  great  groping  society  around  us, 
stupid  with  perplexity,  is  dumbly  exploring.  Let  it  not 
show  its  astuteness  by  dodging  each  difficult  question 
and  arguing  diffusely  every  point  on  which  men  are 
long  ago  unanimous.  Can  it  front  this  matter  of  Social- 
ism, to  which  the  names  of  Owen  and  Fourier  have  at- 
tached, and  dispose  of  that  question  ?  Will  it  cope  with 
the  allied  questions  of  Government,  Nonresistance,  and 
all  that  belongs  under  that  category  ?  Will  it  measure 
itself  with  the  chapter  on  Slavery,  in  some  sort  the 
special  enigma  of  the  time,  as  it  has  provoked  against 
it  a  sort  of  inspiration  and  enthusiasm  singular  in  mod- 
ern history  ?  There  are  literary  and  philosophical  rep- 
utations to  settle.  The  name  of  Swedeuborg  has  in 
this  very  time  acquired  new  honors,  and  the  current 


MASSACHUSETTS   QUARTERLY   REVIEW.      277 

year  has  witnessed  the  appearance,  in  their  first  English 
translation,  of  his  manuscripts.  Here  is  an  unsettled 
account  in  the  book  of  Fame  ;  a  nebula  to  dim  eyes,  but 
which  great  telescopes  may  yet  resolve  into  a  magnifi- 
cent system.  Here  is  the  standing  problem  of  Natural 
Science,  and  the  merits  of  her  great  interpreters  to  be 
determined  ;  the  encyclopedical  Hurnboldt,  and  the  in- 
trepid generalizations  collected  by  the  author  of  the 
"  Vestiges  of  Creation."  Here  is  the  balance  to  be  ad- 
justed between  the  exact  French  school  of  Cuvier,  and 
the  genial  catholic  theorists,  Geoffroy  St.  Hilaire,  Goethe, 
Davy,  aiid  Agassiz.  Will  it  venture  into  the  thin  and 
difficult  air  of  that  school  where  the  secrets  of  structure 
are  discussed  under  the  topics  of  mesmerism  and  the 
twilights  of  demonology  ? 

What  will  easily  seem  to  many  a  far  higher  question 
than  any  other  is  that  which  respects  the  embodying  of 
the  Conscience  of  the  period.  Is  the  age  we  live  in  un- 
friendly to  the  highest  powers  ;  to  that  blending  of 
the  affections  with  the  poetic  faculty  which  has  distin- 
guished the  Religious  Ages  ?  We  have  a  better  opin- 
ion of  the  economy  of  nature  than  to  fear  that  those  va- 
rying phases  which  humanity  presents,  ever  leave  out 
any  of  the  grand  springs  of  human  action.  Mankind 
for  the  moment  seem  to  be  in  search  of  a  religion.  The 
Jewish  cultus  is  declining  ;  the  Divine,  or,  as  some  will 
say,  the  truly  Human,  hovers,  now  seen,  now  unseen, 
before  us.  This  period  of  peace,  this  hour  when  the 
jangle  of  contending  churches  is  hushing  or  hushed,  will 
seem  only  the  more  propitious  to  those  who  believe  that 
man  need  not  fear  the  want  of  religion,  because  they 
know  his  religious  constitution,  —  that  he  must  rest  on 
the  moral  and  religious  sentiments,  as  the  motion  of 


278  EDITORS'  ADDRESS. 

bodies  rests  on  geometry.  In  the  rapid  decay  of  what 
was  called  religion,  timid  and  unthinking  people  fancy 
a  decay  of  the  hope  of  man.  But  the  moral  and  relig- 
ious sentiments  meet  us  everywhere,  alike  in  markets 
as  in  churches.  A  God  starts  up  behind  cotton  bales 
also.  The  conscience  of  man  is  regenerated  as  is  the 
atmosphere,  so  that  society  cannot  be  debauched.  The 
health  which  we  call  Virtue  is  an  equipoise  which  easily 
redresses  itself,  and  resembles  those  rocking  -  stones 
which  a  child's  finger  can  move,  and  a  weight  of  many 
hundred  tons  cannot  overthrow. 

With  these  convictions,  a  few  friends  of  good  letters 
have  thought  fit  to  associate  themselves  for  the  conduct 
of  a  new  journal.  We  have  obeyed  the  custom  and 
convenience  of  the  time  in  adopting  this  form  of  a  Re- 
view, as  a  mould  into  which  all  metal  most  easily  runs. 
But  the  form  shall  not  be  suffered  to  be  an  impediment. 
The  name  might  convey  the  impression  of  a  book  of 
criticism,  and  that  nothing  is  to  be  found  here  which  was 
not  written  expressly  for  the  Review  ;  but  good  readers 
know  that  inspired  pages  are  not  written  to  fill  a  space, 
but  for  inevitable  utterance  ;  and  to  such  our  journal 
is  freely  and  solicitously  open,  even  though  everything 
else  be  excluded.  We  entreat  the  aid  of  every  lover  of 
truth  and  right,  and  let  these  principles  entreat  for  us. 
We  rely  on  the  talents  and  industry  of  good  men  known 
to  us,  but  much  more  on  the  magnetism  of  truth,  which 
is  multiplying  and  educating  advocates  for  itself  and 
friends  for  us.  We  rely  on  the  truth  for  and  against 
ourselves. 


WOMAN. 


A  LECTURE  READ  BEFORE  THE  WOMAN'S  RIGHTS  CONVEN- 
TION, BOSTON,  SEPTEMBER  20,  1856. 


WOMAN. 


AMONG  those  movements  which  seem  to  be,  now  and 
then,  endemic  in  the  public  mind,  —  perhaps  we  should 
say,  sporadic,  —  rather  than  the  single  inspiration  of 
one  mind,  is  that  which  has  urged  on  society  the  bene- 
fits of  action  having  for  its  object  a  benefit  to  the  posi- 
tion of  Woman.  And  none  is  more  seriously  interesting 
to  every  healthful  and  thoughtful  mind. 

In  that  race  which  is  now  predominant  over  all  the 
other  races  of  men,  it  was  a  cherished  belief  that  women 
bad  an  oracular  nature.  They  are  more  delicate  than 
men,  —  delicate  as  iodine  to  light,  —  and  thus  more  im- 
pressionable. They  are  the  best  index  of  the  coming 
hour.  I  share  this  belief.  I  think  their  words  are  to 
be  weighed  ;  but  it  is  their  inconsiderate  word,  —  ac- 
cording to  the  rule,  '  take  their  first  advice,  not  their 
second  : '  as  Coleridge  was  wont  to  apply  to  a  lady  for 
her  judgment  in  questions  of  taste,  and  accept  it  ;  but 
when  she  added  —  "I  think  so,  because  "  —  " Pardon 
me,  madam,"  he  said,  "  leave  me  to  find  out  the  reasons 
for  myself."  In  this  sense,  as  more  delicate  mercuries 
of  the  imponderable  and  immaterial  influences,  what 
they  say  and  think  is  the  shadow  of  coming  events. 
Their  very  dolls  are  indicative.  Among  our  Norse  an- 


282  WOMAN. 

cestors,  Frigga  was  worshipped  as  the  goddess  of  women. 
"  Weirdes  all,"  said  the  Edda,  "  Frigga  knoweth,  though 
she  telleth  them  never."  That  is  to  say,  all  wisdoms 
Woman  knows  ;  though  she  takes  them  for  granted,  and 
does  not  explain  them  as  discoveries,  like  the  under- 
standing of  man.  Men  remark  figure  :  women  always 
catch  the  expression.  They  inspire  by  a  look,  and  pass 
with  us  not  so  much  by  what  they  say  or  do,  as  by  their 
presence.  They  learn  so  fast  and  convey  the  result  so 
fast  as  to  outrun  the  logic  of  their  slow  brother  and 
make  his  acquisitions  poor.  'Tis  their  mood  and  tone 
that  is  important.  Does  their  mind  misgive  them,  or 
are  they  firm  and  cheerful  ?  'T  is  a  true  report  that 
things  are  going  ill  or  well.  And  any  remarkable  opin- 
ion or  movement  shared  by  woman  will  be  the  first  sign 
of  revolution. 

Plato  said,  Women  are  the  same  as  men  in  faculty, 
only  less  in  degree.  But  the  general  voice  of  mankind 
has  agreed  that  they  have  their  own  strength  ;  that 
women  are  strong  by  sentiment ;  that  the  same  mental 
height  which  their  husbands  attain  by  toil,  they  attain 
by  sympathy  with  their  husbands.  Man  is  the  will,  and 
Woman  the  sentiment.  In  this  ship  of  humanity,  Will 
is  the  rudder,  and  Sentiment  the  sail  :  when  Woman 
affects  to  steer,  the  rudder  is  only  a  masked  sail.  When 
women  engage  in  any  art  or  trade,  it  is  usually  as  a  re- 
source, not  as  a  primary  object.  The  life  of  the  affec- 
tions is  primary  to  them,  so  that  there  is  usually  no 
employment  or  career  which  they  will  not  with  their 
own  applause  and  that  of  society  quit  for  a  suitable 
marriage.  And  they  give  entirely  to  their  affections, 
set  their  whole  fortune  on  the  die,  lose  themselves  ea- 
gerly in  the  glory  of  their  husbands  and  children.  Man 


WOMAN.  283 

stands  astonished  at  a  magnanimity  he  cannot  pretend 
to.  Mrs.  Lucy  Hutchinson,  one  of  the  heroines  of  the 
English  Commonwealth,  who  wrote  the  life  of  her  hus- 
band, the  Governor  of  Nottingham,  says,  "  If  he  es- 
teemed her  at  a  higher  rate  than  she  in  herself  could 
have  deserved,  he  was  the  author  of  that  virtue  he  doted 
on,  while  she  only  reflected  his  own  glories  upon  him. 
All  that  she  was,  was  him,  while  he  was  hers,  and  all 
that  she  is  now,  at  best,  but  his  pale  shade." 

As  for  Plato's  opinion,  it  is  true  that,  up  to  recent 
times,  in  no  art  or  science,  not  in  painting,  poetry,  or 
music,  have  they  produced  a  master-piece.  Till  the 
new  education  and  larger  opportunities  of  very  modern 
times,  this  position,  with  the  fewest  possible  exceptions, 
has  always  been  true.  Sappho,  to  be  sure,  in  the  Olym- 
pic Games,  gained  the  crown  over  Pindar.  But,  in 
general,  no  mastery  in  either  of  the  fine  arts,  —  which 
should,  one  would  say,  be  the  arts  of  women,  —  has  yet 
been  obtained  by  them,  equal  to  the  mastery  of  men  in 
the  same.  The  part  they  play  in  education,  in  the  care 
of  the  young  and  the  tuition  of  older  children,  is  their 
organic  office  in  the  world.  So  much  sympathy  as  they 
have,  makes  them  inestimable  as  the  mediators  between 
those  who  have  knowledge  and  those  who  want  it  :  be- 
sides, their  fine  organization,  their  taste,  and  love  of 
details,  makes  the  knowledge  they  give  better  in  their 
hands. 

But  there  is  an  art  which  is  better  than  painting, 
poetry,  music,  or  architecture,  —  better  than  botany, 
geology,  or  any  science  ;  namely,  Conversation.  Wise, 
cultivated,  genial  conversation  is  the  last  flower  of  civ- 
ilization and  the  best  result  which  life  has  to  offer  us,  — 
a  cup  for  gods,  which  has  no  repentance.  Conversation 


284  WOMAN. 

is  our  account  of  ourselves.  All  we  have,  all  we  can, 
all  we  know,  is  brought  into  play,  and  as  the  reproduc- 
tion, in  finer  form,  of  all  our  havings. 

Women  are,  by  this  and  their  social  influence,  the 
civilizers  of  mankind.  What  is  civilization  ?  I  answer, 
the  power  of  good  women.  It  was  Burns's  remark 
when  he  first  came  to  Edinburgh  that  between  the  men 
of  rustic  life  and  the  polite  world  he  observed  little  dif- 
ference ;  that  in  the  former,  though  unpolished  by  fash- 
ion and  unenlightened  by  science,  he  had  found  much 
observation  and  much  intelligence  ;  but  a  refined  and 
accomplished  woman  was  a  being  almost  new  to  him, 
and  of  which  he  had  formed  a  very  inadequate  idea. 
"  I  like  women,"  said  a  clear-headed  man  of  the  world, 
"  they  are  so  finished."  They  finish  society,  manners, 
language.  Form  and  ceremony  are  their  realm.  They 
embellish  trifles.  All  these  ceremonies  that  hedge  our 
life  around  are  not  to  be  despised,  and  when  we  have 
become  habituated  to  them  cannot  be  dispensed  with. 
No  woman  can  despise  them  with  impunity.  Their  ge- 
nius delights  in  ceremonies,  in  forms,  in  decorating  life 
with  manners,  with  proprieties,  order  and  grace.  They 
are,  in  their  nature,  more  relative  ;  the  circumstance 
must  always  be  fit  ;  out  of  place  they  lor.e  half  their 
weight,  out  of  place  they  are  disfranchised.  Position, 
"Wren  said,  is  essential  to  the  perfecting  of  beauty  ;  —  a 
fine  building  is  lost  in  a  dark  lane  ;  a  statue  should 
stand  in  the  air  ;  much  more  true  is  it  of  woman. 

We  commonly  say  that  easy  circumstances  seem  some- 
how necessary  to  the  finish  of  the  female  character : 
but  then  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  they  create  these 
with  all  their  might.  They  are  always  making  that 
civilization  which  they  require  ;  that  state  of  art,  of 


WOMAN.  285 

decoration,  that  ornamental  life  in  which  they  best 
appear. 

The  spiritual  force  of  man  is  as  much  shown  in  taste, 
in  his  fancy  and  imagination  —  attaching  deep  mean- 
ings to  things  and  to  arbitrary  inventions  of  no  real 
value,  —  as  in  his  perception  of  truth.  He  is  as  much 
raised  above  the  beast  by  this  creative  faculty  as  by  any 
other.  The  horse  and  ox  use  no  delays  ;  they  run  to 
the  river  when  thirsty,  to  the  corn  when  hungry,  and 
say  no  thanks,  but  fight  down  whatever  opposes  their 
appetite.  But  man  invents  and  adorns  all  he  does  with 
delays  and  degrees,  paints  it  all  over  with  fcrms,  to 
please  himself  better  ;  he  invented  majesty  and  the  eti- 
quette of  courts  and  drawing-rooms  ;  architecture,  cur- 
tains, dress,  all  luxuries  and  adornments,  and  the  ele- 
gance of  privacy,  to  increase  the  joys  of  society.  He 
invented  marriage  ;  and  surrounded  by  religion,  by 
comeliness,  by  all  manner  of  dignities  and  renuncia- 
tions, the  union  of  the  sexes. 

And  how  should  we  better  measure  the  gulf  between 
the  best  intercourse  of  men  in  old  Athens,  in  London, 
or  in  our  American  capitals,  —  between  this  and  the 
hedgehog  existence  of  diggers  of  worms,  and  the  eat- 
ers of  clay  and  offal,  —  than  by  signalizing  just  this  de- 
partment of  taste  or  comeliness  ?  Herein  woman  is 
the  prime  genius  and  ordainer.  There  is  no  grace  that 
is  taught  by  the  dancing-master,  no  style  adopted  into 
the  etiquette  of  courts,  but  was  first  the  whim  and  mere 
action  of  some  brilliant  woman,  who  charmed  beholders 
by  this  new  expression,  and  made  it  remembered  and 
copied.  And  I  think  they  should  magnify  their  ritual 
of  manners.  Society,  conversation,  decorum,  flowers, 
dances,  colors,  forms,  are  their  homes  and  attendants. 


286  WOMAN. 

They  should  be  found  in  fit  surroundings  —  with  fair 
approaches,  with  agreeable  architecture,  aud  with  all 
advantages  which  the  means  of  man  collect :  — 

"  The  far-fetched  diamond  finds  its  home 

Flashing  and  smouldering  in  her  hair. 
For  her  the  seas  their  pearls  reveal, 

Art  and  strange  lands  her  pomp  supply 
With  purple,  chrome  and  cochineal, 

Ochre  and  lapis  lazuli. 
The  worm  its  golden  woof  presents. 

Whatever  runs,  flies,  dives  or  delves 
All  doff  for  her  their  ornaments, 

Which  suit  her  better  than  themselves." 

There  is  no  gift  of  nature  without  some  drawback, 
So,  to  women,  this  exquisite  structure  could  not  exist 
without  its  own  penalty.  More  vulnerable,  more  infirm, 
more  mortal  than  men,  they  could  not  be  such  excellent 
artists  in  this  element  of  fancy  if  they  did  not  lend  and 
give  themselves  to  it.  They  are  poets  who  believe  their 
own  poetry.  They  emit  from  their  pores  a  colored  at- 
mosphere, one  would  say,  wave  upon  wave  of  rosy  light, 
in  which  they  walk  evermore,  and  see  all  objects  through 
this  warm-tinted  mist  that  envelops  them. 

But  the  starry  crown  of  woman  is  in  the  power  of 
her  affection  and  sentiment,  and  the  infinite  enlarge- 
ments to  which  they  lead.  Beautiful  is  the  passion  of 
love,  painter  and  adorner  of  youth  and  early  life  :  but 
who  suspects,  in  its  blushes  and  tremors,  what  trage- 
dies, heroisms  and  immortalities  are  beyond  it  ?  The 
passion,  with  all  its  grace  and  poetry,  is  profane  to  that 
which  follows  it.  All  these  affections  are  only  intro- 
ductory to  that  which  is  beyond,  and  to  that  which  is 
sublime. 

We  men  have  no  right  to  say  it,  but  the  omnipotence 


WOMAN.  287 

of  Eve  is  in  humility.     The  instincts  of  mankind  have 
drawn  the  Virgin  Mother  — 

"  Created  beings  all  in  lowliness 
Surpassing,  as  in  height  above  them  all." 

This  is  the  Divine  Person  whom  Dante  and  Milton 
saw  in  vision.  This  is  the  victory  of  Griselda,  her  su- 
preme humility.  And  it  is  when  love  has  reached  this 
height  that  all  our  pretty  rhetoric  begins  to  have  mean- 
ing. When  we  see  that,  it  adds  to  the  soul  a  new  soul, 
it  is  honey  in  the  mouth,  music  in  the  ear  and  balsam 
in  the  heart. 

"  Far  have  I  clambered  in  my  mind, 
But  nought  so  great  as  Love  I  find. 
What  is  thy  tent,  where  dost  thou  dwell  ? 

4  My  mansion  is  humility, 
Heaven's  vastest  capability.' 
The  further  it  doth  downward  tend, 
The  higher  up  it  doth  ascend." 

The  first  thing  men  think  of,  when  they  love,  is  to 
exhibit  their  usefulness  and  advantages  to  the  object  of 
their  affection.  Women  make  light  of  these,  asking 
only  love.  They  wish  it  to  be  an  exchange  of  noble- 
ness. 

There  is  much  in  their  nature,  much  in  their  social 
position  which  gives  them  a  certain  power  of  divination. 
And  women  know,  at  first  sight,  the  characters  of  those 
with  whom  they  converse.  There  is  much  that  tends 
to  give  them  a  religious  height  which  men  do  not  at- 
tain. Their  sequestration  from  affairs  and  from  the 
injury  to  the  moral  sense  which  affairs  often  inflict,  aids 
this.  And  in  every  remarkable  religious  development 
in  the  world,  women  have  taken  a  leading  part.  It  is 
very  curious  that  in  the  East,  where  Woman  occupies, 


288 

nationally,  a  lower  sphere,  where  the  laws  resist  the  ed- 
ucation and  emancipation  of  women,  —  in  the  Moham- 
medan faith,  Woman  yet  occupies  the  same  leading  po- 
sition, as  a  prophetess,  that  she  has  among  the  ancient 
Greeks,  or  among  the  Hebrews,  or  among  the  Saxons. 
And  this  power,  this  religious  character,  is  everywhere 
to  be  remarked  in  them. 

The  action  of  society  is  progressive.  In  barbarous 
society  the  position  of  women  is  always  low,  —  in  the 
Eastern  nations  lower  than  in  the  West.  "When  a 
daughter  is  born,"  says  the  Sinking,  the  old  Sacred 
Book  of  China,  "  she  sleeps  on  the  ground,  she  is  clothed 
with  a  wrapper,  she  plays  with  a  tile  ;  she  is  incapable 
of  evil  or  of  good."  And  something  like  that  position, 
in  all  low  society,  is  the  position  of  woman  ;  because,  as 
before  remarked,  she  is  herself  its  civilizer.  With  the 
advancements  of  society  the  position  and  inlliience  of 
woman  bring  her  strength  or  her  faults  into  light.  In 
modern  times,  three  or  four  conspicuous  instrumentali- 
ties may  be  marked.  After  the  deification  of  Woman 
in  the  Catholic  Church,  in  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth 
century,  —  when  her  religious  nature  gave  her,  of 
course,  new  importance,  —  the  Quakers  have  the  honor 
of  having  first  established,  in  their  discipline,  the  equal- 
ity in  the  sexes.  It  is  even  more  perfect  in  the  later 
sect  of  the  Shakers,  wherein  no  business  is  broached  or 
counselled  without  the  intervention  of  one  elder  and 
one  elderess. 

A  second  epoch  for  Woman  was  in  France,  —  entirely 
civil ;  the  change  of  sentiment  from  a  rude  to  a  polite 
character,  in  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.,  —  commonly  dated 
from  the  building  of  the  Hotel  cle  Ramboui'llet.  I 
think  another  important  step  was  made  by  the  doctrine 


WOMAN.  289 

of  Swedenborg,  a  sublime  genius  who  gave  a  scientific 
exposition  of  the  part  played  severally  by  man  and 
woman  in  the  world,  and  showed  the  difference  of  sex 
to  run  through  nature  and  through  thought.  Of  all 
Christian  sects  this  is  at  this  moment  the  most  vital 
and  aggressive. 

Another  step  was  the  effect  of  the  action  of  the  age 
in  the  antagonism  to  Slavery.  It  was  easy  to  enlist 
AVoman  in  this  ;  it  was  impossible  not  to  enlist  her. 
But  that  Cause  turned  out  to  be  a  great  scholar.  He 
was  a  terrible  metaphysician.  He  was  a  jurist,  a  poet, 
a  divine.  Was  never  a  University  of  Oxford  or  Gbttiu- 
gen  that  made  such  students.  It  took  a  man  from  the 
plough  and  made  him  acute,  eloquent,  and  wise,  to  the 
silencing  of  the  doctors.  There  was  nothing  it  did  not 
pry  into,  no  right  it  did  not  explore,  no  wrong  it  did  not 
expose.  And  it  has,  among  its  other  effects,  given 
Woman  a  feeling  of  public  duty  and  an  added  self- 
respect. 

One  truth  leads  in  another  by  the  hand  ;  one  right  is 
an  accession  of  strength  to  take  more.  And  the  times 
are  marked  by  the  new  attitude  of  Woman  ;  urging, 
by  argument  and  by  association,  her  rights  of  all  kinds, 
—  in  short,  to  one-half  of  the  world  ;  —  as  the  right  to 
education,  to  avenues  of  employment,  to  equal  rights 
of  property,  to  equal  rights  in  marriage,  to  the  exercise 
of  the  professions  and  of  suffrage. 

Of  course,  this  conspicuousness  had  its  inconven- 
iences. But  it  is  very  cheap  wit  that  has  been  spent  on 
this  subject ;  from  Aristophanes,  whose  comedies  I  con- 
fess my  dulness  to  find  good  joke,  to  Rabelais,  in  whom 
it  is  monstrous  exaggeration  of  temperament,  and  not 
borne  out  by  anything  in  nature,  —  down  to  English 
19 


290  WOMAN. 

Comedy,  and,  in  our  day,  to  Tennyson,  and  the  Ameri- 
can newspapers.  In  all,  the  body  of  the  joke  is  one, 
namely,  to  charge  women  with  temperament  ;  to  de- 
scribe them  as  victims  of  temperament  ;  and  is  identi- 
cal with  Mahomet's  opinion  that  women  have  not  a 
sufficient  moral  or  intellectual  force  to  control  the  per- 
turbations of  their  physical  -structure.  These  were  all 
drawings  of  morbid  anatomy,  and  such  satire  as  might  be 
written  on  the  tenants  of  a  hospital  or  on  an  asylum  for 
idiots.  Of  course  it  would  be  easy  for  women  to  retali- 
ate in  kind,  by  painting  men  from  the  dogs  and  gorillas 
that  have  worn  our  shape.  That  they  have  not,  is  an 
eulogy  on  their  taste  and  self-respect.  The  good  easy 
world  took  the  joke  which  it  liked.  There  is  always 
the  want  of  thought  ;  there  is  always  credulity.  There 
are  plenty  of  people  who  believe  women  to  be  incapable 
of  anything  but  to  cook,  incapable  of  interest  in  affairs. 
There  are  plenty  of  people  who  believe  that  the  world 
is  governed  by  men  of  dark  complexions,  that  affairs 
are  only  directed  by  such,  and  do  not  see  the  use  of 
contemplative  men,  or  how  ignoble  would  be  the  world 
that  wanted  them.  And  so  without  the  affection  of 
women. 

But  for  the  general  charge  :  no  doubt  it  is  well 
founded.  They  are  victims  of  the  finer  temperament. 
They  have  tears,  and  gaieties,  and  f  aintings,  and  glooms, 
and  devotion  to  trifles.  Nature's  end,  of  maternity  for 
twenty  years,  was  of  so  supreme  importance  that  it  was 
to  be  secured  at  all  events,  even  to  the  sacrifice  of  the 
highest  beauty.  They  are  more  personal.  Men  taunt 
them  that,  whatever  they  do,  say,  read  or  write,  they 
are  thinking  of  themselves  and  their  set.  Men  are  not 
to  the  same  degree  temperamented,  for  there  are  mul- 


WOMAN.  291 

titudes  of  men  who  live  to  objects  quite  out  of  them,  as 
to  politics,  to  trade,  to  letters  or  an  art,  unhindered  by 
any  influence  of  constitution. 

The  answer  that  lies,  silent  or  spoken,  in  the  minds 
of  well-meaning  persons,  to  the  new  claims,  is  this  : 
that,  though  their  mathematical  justice  is  not  to  be  de- 
nied, yet  the  best  women  do  not  wish  these  things  ; 
"they  are  asked  for  by  people  who  intellectually  seek 
them,  but  who  have  not  the  support  or  sympathy  of 
the  truest  women ;  and  that,  if  the  laws  and  customs 
were  modified  in  the  manner  proposed,  it  would  embar- 
rass and  pain  gentle  and  lovely  persons  with  duties 
which  they  would  find  irksome  and  distasteful.  Very 
likely.  Providence  is  always  surprising  us  with  new 
and  unlikely  instruments.  But  perhaps  it  is  because 
these  people  have  been  deprived  of  education,  fine  com- 
panions, opportunities,  such  as  they  wished,  —  because 
they  feel  the  same  rudeness  and  disadvantage  which 
offends  you,  —  that  they  have  been  stung  to  say,  "  It  is 
too  late  for  us  to  be  polished  and  fashioned  into  beauty, 
but,  at  least,  we  will  see  that  the  whole  race  of  women 
shall  not  suffer  as  we  have  suffered." 

They  have  an  unquestionable  right  to  their  own  prop- 
erty. And  if  a  woman  demand  votes,  offices  and  polit- 
ical equality  with  men,  as  among  the  Shakers  an  Elder 
and  Elderess  are  of  equal  power,  —  and  among  the 
Quakers,  —  it  must  not  be  refused.  It  is  very  cheap 
wit  that  finds  it  so  droll  that  a  woman  should  vote. 
Educate  and  refine  society  to  the  highest  point,  —  bring 
together  a  cultivated  society  of  both  sexes,  in  a  draw- 
ing-room, and  consult  and  decide  by  voices  on  a  ques- 
tion of  taste  or  on  a  question  of  right,  and  is  there  any 


292  WOMAN. 

absurdity  or  any  practical  difficulty  in  obtaining  their 
authentic  opinions  ?  If  not,  then  there  need  he  none  in 
a  hundred  companies,  if  you  educate  them  and  accus- 
tom them  to  judge.  And,  for  the  effect  of  it,  I  can  say 
for  one,  that  all  my  points  would  sooner  he  carried  in 
the  state  if  women  voted.  On  the  questions  that  are 
important  ;  —  whether  the  government  shall  be  in  one 
person,  or  whether  representative,  or  whether  demo- 
cratic ;  whether  men  shall  be  holden  in  bondage,  or 
shall  be  roasted  alive  and  eaten,  as  in  Typee,  or  shall 
be  hunted  with  blood-hounds,  as  in  this  country  ;  whether 
men  shall  he  hanged  for  stealing,  or  hanged  at  all  ; 
whether  the  unlimited  sale  of  cheap  liquors  shall  be  al- 
lowed ; — they  would  give,  I  suppose,  as  intelligent  a 
vote  as  the  voters  of  Boston  or  New  York. 

We  may  ask,  to  be  sure,  —  Why  need  you  vote  ?  If 
new  power  is  here,  of  a  character  which  solves  old  tough 
questions,  which  puts  me  and  all  the  rest  in  the  wrong, 
tries  and  condemns  our  religion,  customs,  laws,  and 
opens  new  careers  to  our  young  receptive  men  and 
women,  you  can  well  leave  voting  to  the  old  dead  peo- 
ple. Those  whom  you  teach,  and  those  whom  you  half 
teach,  will  fast  enough  make  themselves  considered  and 
strong  with  their  new  insight,  and  votes  will  follow  from 
all  the  dull. 

The  objection  to  their  voting  is  the  same  as  is  urged, 
in  the  lobbies  of  legislatures,  against  clergymen  who 
take  an  active  part  in  politics  ;  —  that  if  they  are  good 
clergymen  they  are  unacquainted  with  the  expediencies 
of  politics,  and  if  they  become  good  politicians  they  are 
worse  clergymen.  So  of  women,  that  they  cannot  enter 
this  arena  without  being  contaminated  and  unsexed. 

Here  are  two  or  three  objections  :  first,  a  want  of 


WOMAN.  293 

practical  wisdom  ;  second,  a  too  purely  ideal  view  ; 
and,  third,  danger  of  contamination.  For  their  want  of 
intimate  knowledge  of  affairs,  I  do  not  think  this  ought 
to  disqualify  them  from  voting  at  any  town-meeting 
which  I  ever  attended.  I  could  heartily  wish  the  objec- 
tion were  sound.  But  if  any  man  will  take  the  trouble 
to  see  how  our  people  vote,  —  how  many  gentlemen  are 
willing  to  take  on  themselves  the  trouble  of  thinking 
and  determining  for  you,  and,  standing  at  the  door  of 
the  polls,  give  every  innocent  citizen  his  ticket  as  he 
comes  in,  informing  him  that  this  is  the  vote  of  his 
party  ;  and  how  the  innocent  citizen,  without  further 
demur,  goes  and  drops  it  in  the  ballot-box,  —  I  cannot 
but  think  he  will  agree  that  most  women  might  vote  as 
wisely. 

For  the  other  point,  of  their  not  knowing  the  world, 
and  aiming  at  abstract  right  without  allowance  for  cir- 
cumstances, —  that  is  not  a  disqualification,  but  a  qual- 
ification. Human  society  is  made  up  of  partialities. 
Each  citizen  has  an  interest  and  a  view  of  his  own, 
which,  if  followed  out  to  the  extreme,  would  leave  no 
room  for  any  other  citizen.  One  man  is  timid  and  an- 
other rash  ;  one  would  change  nothing,  and  the  other  is 
pleased  with  nothing  ;  one  wishes  schools,  another  ar- 
mies, one  gunboats,  another  public  gardens.  Bring  all 
these  biases  together  and  something  is  done  in  favor  of 
them  all. 

Every  one  is  a  half  vote,  but  the  next  elector  behind 
him  brings  the  other  or  corresponding  half  in  his  hand  : 
a  reasonable  result  is  had.  Now  there  is  no  lack,  I  am 
sure,  of  the  expediency,  or  of  the  interests  of  trade  or 
of  imperative  class-interests  being  neglected.  There  is 
no  lack  of  votes  representing  the  physical  wants  ;  and 


294  WOMAN. 

if  in  your  city  the  uneducated  emigrant  vote  numbers 
thousands,  representing  a  brutal  ignorance  and  mere 
animal  wants,  it  is  to  be  corrected  by  an  educated  and 
religious  vote,  representing  the  wants  and  desires  of 
honest  and  refined  persons.  If  the  wants,  the  passions, 
the  vices,  are  allowed  a  full  vote  through  the  hands  of 
a  half-brutal  intemperate  population,  I  think  it  but  fair 
that  the  virtues,  the  aspirations  should  be  allowed  a 
full  vote,  as  an  offset,  through  the  purest  part  of  the 
people. 

As  for  the  unsexing  and  contamination,  —  that  only 
accuses  our  existing  politics,  shows  how  barbarous  we  are, 
—  that  our  policies  are  so  crooked,  made  up  of  things 
not  to  be  spoken,  to  be  understood  only  by  wink  and 
nudge  ;  this  man  to  be  coaxed,  that  man  to  be  bought, 
and  that  other  to  be  duped.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  there 
is  contamination  enough,  but  it  rots  the  men  now,  and 
fills  the  air  with  stench.  Come  out  of  that  :  it  is  like  a 
dance-cellar.  The  fairest  names  in  this  country  in  lit- 
erature, in  law,  have  gone  into  Congress  and  come  out 
dishonored.  And  when  I  read  the  list  of  men  of  intel- 
lect, of  refined  pursuits,  giants  in  law,  or  eminent  schol- 
ars, or  of  social  distinction,  leading  men  of  wealth  and 
enterprise  in  the  commercial  community,  and  see  what 
they  have  voted  for  and  suffered  to  be  voted  for,  I  think 
no  community  was  ever  so  politely  and  elegantly  be- 
trayed. 

I  do  not  think  it  yet  appears  that  women  wish  this 
equal  share  in  public  affairs.  But  it  is  they  and  not  we 
that  are  to  determine  it.  Let  the  laws  be  purged  of 
every  barbarous  remainder,  every  barbarous  impedi- 
ment to  women.  Let  the  public  donations  for  educa- 


WOMAN.  295 

tion  be  equally  shared  by  them,  let  them  enter  a  school 
as  freely  as  a  church,  let  them  have  and  hold  and  give 
their  property  as  men  do  theirs  ;  — and  in  a  few  years 
it  will  easily  appear  whether  they  wish  a  voice  in  mak- 
ing the  laws  that  are  to  govern  them.  If  you  do  refuse 
them  a  vote,  you  will  also  refuse  to  tax  them,  —  accord- 
ing to  our  Teutonic  principle,  No  representation,  no 
tax. 

All  events  of  history  are  to  be  regarded  as  growths 
and  offshoots  of  the  expanding  mind  of  the  race,  and 
this  appearance  of  new  opinions,  their  currency  and 
force  in  many  minds,  is  itself  the  wonderful  fact.  For 
whatever  is  popular  is  important,  shows  the  spontaneous 
sense  of  the  hour.  The  aspiration  of  this  century  will 
be  the  code  of  the  next.  It  holds  of  high  and  distant 
causes,  of  the  same  influences  that  make  the  sun  and 
moon.  When  new  opinions  appear,  they  will  be  enter- 
tained and  respected,  by  every  fair  mind,  according  to 
their  reasonableness,  and  not  according  to  their  conven- 
ience, or  their  fitness  to  shock  our  customs.  But  let 
us  deal  with  them  greatly  ;  let  them  make  their  way 
by  the  upper  road,  and  not  by  the  way  of  manufactur- 
ing public  opinion,  which  lapses  continually  into  expedi- 
ency, and  makes  charlatans.  All  that  is  spontaneous  is 
irresistible,  and  forever  it  is  individual  force  that  inter- 
ests. I  need  not  repeat  to  you,  — your  own  solitude 
will  suggest  it,  —  that  a  masculine  woman  is  not  strong, 
but  a  lady  is.  The  loveliest  thought,  the  purest  prayer, 
is  rushing  to  be  the  history  of  a  thousand  years. 

Let  us  have  the  true  woman,  the  adorner,  the  hospi- 
table, the  religious  heart,  and  no  lawyer  need  be  called 
in  to  write  stipulations,  the  cunning  clauses  of  provision, 
the  strong  investitures  j  —  for  woman  moulds  the  law- 


296  WOMAN. 

giver  and  writes  the  Jaw.  But  I  ought  to  say,  I  think 
it  impossible  to  separate  the  interests  and  education  of 
the  sexes.  Improve  and  refine  the  men,  and  you  do  the 
same  by  the  women,  whether  you  will  or  no.  Every 
woman  being  the  wife  or  daughter  of  a  man,  —  wife, 
daughter,  sister,  mother,  of  a  man,  she  can  never  be 
very  far  from  his  ear,  never  not  of  his  counsel,  if  she 
has  really  something  to  urge  that  is  good  in  itself  and 
agreeable  to  nature.  Slavery  it  is  that  makes  slavery  ; 
freedom,  freedom.  The  slavery  of  women  happened 
when  the  men  were  slaves  of  kings.  The  melioration 
of  manners  brought  their  melioration  of  course.  It 
could  not  be  otherwise,  and  hence  the  new  desire  of 
better  laws.  For  there  are  always  a  certain  number  of 
passionately  loving  fathers,  brothers,  husbands  and  sons 
who  put  their  might  into  the  endeavor  to  make  a  daugh- 
ter, a  wife,  or  a  mother  happy  in  the  way  that  suits  best. 
Woman  should  find  in  man  her  guardian.  Silently  she 
looks  for  that,  and  when  she  finds  that  he  is  not,  as  she 
instantly  does,  she  betakes  her  to  her  owii  defences,  and 
does  the  best  she  can.  But  when  he  is  her  guardian, 
fulfilled  with  all  nobleness,  knows  and  accepts  his  duties 
as  her  brother,  all  goes  well  for  both. 

The  new  movement  is  only  a  tide  shared  by  the  spir- 
its of  man  and  woman  ;  and  you  may  proceed  in  the 
faith  that  whatever  the  woman's  heart  is  prompted  to 
desire,  the  man's  mind  is  simultaneously  prompted  to 
accomplish. 


ADDRESS  TO   KOSSUTH. 

AT  CONCORD,  MAY  11,  1852. 


ADDRESS  TO  KOSSUTH. 


SIR, —  The  fatigue  of  your  many  public  visits,  in 
such  unbroken  succession  as  may  compare  with  the  toils 
of  a  campaign,  forbid  us  to  detain  you  long.  The  peo- 
ple of  this  town  share  with  their  countrymen  the  ad- 
miration of  valor  and  perseverance  ;  they,  like  their 
compatriots,  have  been  hungry  to  see  the  man  whose 
extraordinary  eloquence  is  seconded  by  the  splendor 
and  the  solidity  of  his  actions.  But,  as  it  is  the  privi- 
lege of  the  people  of  this  town  to  keep  a  hallowed 
mound  which  has  a  place  in  the  story  of  the  country  ; 
as  Concord  is  one  of  the  monuments  of  freedom  ;  we 
knew  beforehand  that  you  could  not  go  by  us  ;  you 
could  not  take  all  your  steps  in  the  pilgrimage  of  Amer- 
ican liberty,  until  you  had  seen  with  your  eyes  the  ruins 
of  the  bridge  where  a  handful  of  brave  farmers  opened 
our  Revolution.  Therefore,  we  sat  and  waited  for  you. 

And  now,  Sir,  we  are  heartily  glad  to  see  you,  at  last, 
in  these  fields.  We  set  no  more  value  than  you  do  on 
cheers  and  huzzas.  But  we  think  that  the  graves  of 
our  heroes  around  us  throb  to-day  to  a  footstep  that 
sounded  like  their  own  :  — 

"  The  mighty  tread 
Brings  from  the  dust  the  sound  of  liberty." 

Sir,  we  have  watched  with  attention  your  progress 


300  ADDRESS    TO    KOSSUTH. 

through  the  land,  and  the  varying  feeling  with  which 
you  have  been  received,  and  the  unvarying  tone  and 
countenance  which  you  have  maintained.  We  wish  to 
discriminate  in  our  regard.  We  wish  to  reserve  our 
honor  for  actions  of  the  noblest  strain.  We  please  our- 
selves that  in  you  we  meet  one  whose  temper  was  long 
since  tried  in  the  fire,  and  made  equal  to  all  events  ;  a 
man  so  truly  in  love  with  the  greatest  future,  that  he 
cannot  be  diverted  to  any  less. 

It  is  our  republican  doctrine,  too,  that  the  wide  variety 
of  opinions  is  an  advantage.  I  believe  I  may  say  of  the 
people  of  this  country  at  large,  that  their  sympathy  is 
more  worth,  because  it  stands  the  test  of  party.  It  is 
not  a  blind  wave  ;  it  is  a  living  soul  contending  with 
living  souls.  It  is,  in  every  expression,  antagonized. 
No  opinion  will  pass  but  must  stand  the  tug  of  war. 
As  you  see,  the  love  you  win  is  worth  something  ;  for  it 
has  been  argued  through  ;  its  foundation  searched  ;  it 
has  proved  sound  and  whole  ;  it  may  be  avowed  ;  it 
will  last,  and  it  will  draw  all  opinion  to  itself. 

We  have  seen,  with  great  pleasure,  that  there  is  noth- 
ing accidental  in  your  attitude.  We  have  seen  that  you 
are  organically  in  that  cause  you  plead.  The  man  of 
Freedom,  you  are  also  the  man  of  Fate.  You  do  not 
elect,  but  you  are  elected  by  God  and  your  genius  to 
the  task.  We  do  not,  therefore,  affect  to  thank  you. 
We  only  see  in  you  the  angel  of  freedom,  crossing  sea 
and  land  ;  crossing  parties,  nationalities,  private  inter- 
ests and  self-esteems  ;  dividing  populations  where  you 
go,  and  drawing  to  your  part  only  the  good.  We  are 
afraid  that  you  are  growing  popular,  Sir  ;  you  may  be 
called  to  the  dangers  of  prosperity.  But,  hitherto,  you 
have  had  in  all  countries  and  in  all  parties  only  the  men 


ADDRESS    TO   KOSSUTH.  301 

of  heart.  I  do  not  know  bat  you  will  have  the  million 
yet.  Then,  may  your  strength  be  equal  to  your  day. 
But  remember,  Sir,  that  everything  great  and  excellent 
in  the  world  is  in  minorities. 

Far  be  from  us,  Sir,  any  tone  of  patronage  ;  we  ought 
rather  to  ask  yours.  We  know  the  austere  condition 
of  liberty,  —  that  it  must  be  reconquered  over  and  over 
again  ;  yea,  day  by  day  ;  that  it  is  a  state  of  war  ;  that 
it  is  always  slipping  from  those  who  boast  it  to  those 
who  fight  for  it  :  and  you,  the  foremost  soldier  of  free- 
dom in  this  age,  —  it  is  for  us  to  crave  your  judgment ; 
who  are  we  that  we  should  dictate  to  you  ?  You  have 
won  your  own.  We  only  affirm  it.  This  country  of 
working-men  greets  in  you  a  worker.  This  republic 
greets  in  you  a  republican.  We  only  say,  '  Well  done, 
good  and  faithful.'  —  You  have  earned  your  own  nobil- 
ity at  home.  We  admit  you  ad  eundem  (as  they  say 
at  College).  We  admit  you  to  the  same  degree,  with- 
out new  trial.  We  suspend  all  rules  before  so  para- 
mount a  merit.  You  may  well  sit  a  doctor  in  the  col- 
lege of  liberty.  You  have  achieved  your  right  to  inter- 
pret our  Washington.  And  I  speak  the  sense  not  only 
of  every  generous  American,  but  the  law  of  mind,  when 
I  say  that  it  is  not  those  who  live  idly  in  the  city  called 
after  his  name,  but  those  who,  all  over  the  world,  think 
and  act  like  him,  who  can  claim  to  explain  the  senti- 
ment of  Washington. 

Sir,  whatever  obstruction  from  selfishness,  indiffer- 
ence, or  from  property  (which  always  sympathizes  with 
possession)  you  may  encounter,  we  congratulate  you 
that  you  have  known  how  to  convert  calamities  into 
powers,  exile  into  a  campaign,  present  defeat  into  last- 
ing victory.  For  this  new  crusade  which  you  preach 


302  ADDRESS    TO   KOSSUTH. 

to  willing1  and  to  unwilling  ears  in  America  is  a  seed  of 
armed  men.  You  have  got  your  story  told  in  every 
palace  and  log-hut  and  prairie  camp,  throughout  this 
continent.  And,  as  the  shores  of  Europe  and  America 
approach  every  month,  and  their  politics  will  one  day 
mingle,  when  the  crisis  arrives  it  will  find  us  all  in- 
structed beforehand  in  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  Hun- 
gary, and  parties  already  to  her  freedom. 


ROBERT  BURNS. 


SPEECH  AT  THE  CELEBRATION  OF  THE  BURNS  CENTENARY, 
BOSTON,  JANUARY  25,  1859. 


ROBERT  BURNS. 


MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

I  do  not  know  by  what  untoward  accident  it  has 
chanced,  and  I  forbear  to  inquire,  that,  in  this  accom- 
plished circle,  it  should  fall  to  me,  the  worst  Scotsman 
of  all,  to  receive  your  commands,  and  at  the  latest  hour 
too,  to  respond  to  the  sentiment  just  offered,  and  which, 
indeed,  makes  the  occasion.  But  I  am  told  there  is  no 
appeal,  and  I  must  trust  to  the  inspirations  of  the  theme 
to  make  a  fitness  which  does  not  otherwise  exist.  Yet, 
Sir,  I  heartily  feel  the  singular  claims  of  the  occasion. 
At  the  first  announcement,  from  I  know  not  whence, 
that  the  25th  of  January  was  the  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  Robert  Burns,  a  sudden  consent  warmed 
the  great  English  race,  in  all  its  kingdoms,  colonies  and 
""States,  all  over  the  world,  to  keep  the  festival.  We 
are  here  to  hold  our  parliament  with  love  and  poesy,  as 
men  were  wont  to  do  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Those  fa- 
mous parliaments  might  or  might  not  have  had  more 
stateliness  and  better  singers  than  we,  —  though  that 
is  yet  to  be  known,  —  but  they  could  not  have  better 
reason.  I  can  only  explain  this  singular  unanimity  in  a 
race  which  rarely  acts  together,  but  rather  'after  their 
watchword,  Each  for  himself,  —  by  the  fact  that  Robert 
Burns,  the  poet  of  the  middle  class,  represents  in  the 
mind  of  men  to-day  that  great  uprising  of  the  middle 
20 


306  ROBERT    BURNS. 

class  against  the  armed  and  privileged  minorities,  that 
uprising  which  worked  politically  in  the  American  and 
French  Revolutions,  and  which,  not  in  governments  so 
much  as  in  education  and  social  order,  has  changed  the 
face  of  the  world. 

In  order  for  this  destiny,  his  birth,  breeding  and  for- 
tunes were  low.  His  organic  sentiment  was  absolute 
independence,  and  resting  as  it  should  on  a  life  of  labor. 
No  man  existed  who  could  look  down  on  him.  They 
that  looked  into  his  eyes  saw  that  they  might  look  down 
the  sky  as  easily.  His  muse  and  teaching  was  common- 
sense,  joyful,  aggressive,  irresistible.  Not  Latimer,  not 
Luther  struck  more  telling  blows  against  false  theology 
than  did  this  brave  singer.  The  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg, the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  French 
Rights  of  Man,  and  the  Marseillaise,  are  not  more 
weighty  documents  in  the  history  of  freedom  than  the 
songs  of  Burns.  His  satire  has  lost  none  of  its  edge. 
His  musical  arrows  yet  sing  through  the  air.  He  is  so 
substantially  a  reformer  that  I  find  his  grand  plain 
sense  in  close  chain  with  the  greatest  masters,  —  Ra- 
belais, Shakspeare  in  comedy,  Cervantes,  Butler,  and 
Burns.  If  I  should  add  another  name,  I  find  it  only  in 
a  living  countryman  of  Burns. 

He  is  an  exceptional  genius.  The  people  who  care 
nothing  for  literature  and  poetry  care  for  Burns.  It 
was  indifferent  —  they  thought  who  saw  him  —  whether 
he  wrote  verse  or  not  :  he  could  have  done  anything 
else  as  well.  Yet  how  true  a  poet  is  he  !  And  the 
poet,  too,  of  poor  men,  of  gray  hodden  and  the  guern- 
sey coat  and  the  blouse.  He  has  given  voice  to  all  the 
experiences  of  common  life  ;  he  has  endeared  the  farm- 
house and  cottage,  patches  and  poverty,  beans  and  bar- 


ROBERT    BURNS.  307 

ley ;  ale,  the  poor  man's  wine  ;  hardship  ;  the  fear  of 
debt ;  the  dear  society  of  weans  and  wife,  of  brothers 
and  sisters,  proud  of  each  other,  knowing  so  few  and 
finding  amends  for  want  and  obscurity  in  books  and 
thoughts.  What  a  love  of  nature,  and,  shall  I  say  it  ? 
of  middle-class  nature.  Not  like  Goethe,  in  the  stars, 
or  like  Byron,  in  the  ocean,  or  Moore,  in  the  luxurious 
East,  but  in  the  homely  landscape  which  the  poor  see 
around  them,  —  bleak  leagues  of  pasture  and  stubble, 
ice  and  sleet  and  rain  and  snow-choked  brooks  ;  birds, 
hares,  field-mice,  thistles  and  heather,  which  he  daily 
knew.  How  many  "  Bonny  Doons  "  and  "  John  Ander- 
son my  jo's  "  and  "  Auld  lang  Synes  "  all  around  the 
earth  have  Ids  verses  been  applied  to  !  And  his  love- 
songs  still  woo  and  melt  the  youths  and  maids  ;  the 
farm- work,  the  country  holiday,  the  fishing-cobble,  are 
still  his  debtors  to-day. 

And  as  he  was  thus  the  poet  of  the  poor,  anxious, 
cheerful,  working  humanity,  so  had  he  the  language  of 
low  life.  He  grew  up  in  a  rural  district,  speaking  a 
patois  unintelligible  to  all  but  natives,  and  he  has  made 
the  Lowland  Scotch  a  Doric  dialect  of  fame.  It  is  the 
only  example  in  history  of  a  language  made  classic  by 
the  genius  of  a  single  man.  But  more  than  this.  He 
had  that  secret  of  genius  to  draw  from  the  bottom  of 
society  the  strength  of  its  speech,  and  astonish  the  ears 
of  the  polite  with  these  artless  words,  better  than  art, 
and  filtered  of  all  offence  through  his  beauty.  It  seemed 
odious  to  Luther  that  the  devil  should  have  all  the  best 
tunes  ;  he  would  bring  them  into  the  churches  ;  and 
Burns  knew  how  to  take  from  fairs  and  gypsies,  black- 
smiths and  drovers,  the  speech  of  the  market  and  street, 
and  clothe  it  with  melody.  But  I  am  detaining  you  too 


308  ROBERT    BURNS. 

long.  The  memory  of  Burns,  —  I  am  afraid  heaven 
and  earth  have  taken  too  good  care  of  it  to  leave  us 
anything  to  say.  The  west  winds  are  murmuring  it. 
Open  the  windows  behind  you,  and  hearken  for  the  in- 
coming tide,  what  the  waves  say  of  it.  The  doves 
perching  always  on  the  eaves  of  the  Stone  Chapel  oppo- 
site, may  know  something  about  it.  Every  name  in 
broad  Scotland  keeps  his  fame  bright.  The  memory  of 
Burns,  —  every  man's,  every  boy's  and  girl's  head  car- 
ries snatches  of  his  songs,  and  they  say  them  by  heart, 
and,  what  is  strangest  of  all,  never  learned  them  from 
a  book,  but  from  mouth  to  mouth.  The  wind  whispers 
them,  the  birds  whistle  them,  the  corn,  barley  and  bul- 
rushes hoarsely  rustle  them,  nay,  the  music-boxes  at 
Geneva  are  framed  and  toothed  to  play  them ;  the 
hand-organs  of  the  Savoyards  in  all  cities  repeat  them, 
and  the  chimes  of  bells  ring  them  in  the  spires.  They 
are  the  property  and  the  solace  of  mankind. 


WALTER   SCOTT. 


REMARKS  AT  THE  CELEBRATION  BY  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  HIS- 
TORICAL SOCIETY  OF  THE  CENTENNIAL  ANNIVERSARY  OF 
HIS  BIRTH.    BOSTON,  AUGUST  15,  1871. 


WALTER  SCOTT. 


THE  memory  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  is  dear  to  this  So- 
ciety, of  which  he  was  for  ten  years  an  Honorary  Mem- 
ber. If  only  as  an  eminent  antiquary  who  has  shed  light 
on  the  history  of  Europe  and  of  the  English  race,  he 
had  high  claims  to  our  regard.  But  to  the  rare  tribute 
of  a  centennial  anniversary  of  his  birthday,  which  we 
gladly  join  with  Scotland  and  indeed  with  Europe  to 
keep,  he  is  not  less  entitled,  —  perhaps  he  alone  among 
the  literary  men  of  this  century  is  entitled,  —  by  the 
exceptional  debt  which  all  English-speaking  men  have 
gladly  owed  to  his  character  and  genius.  I  think  no 
modern  writer  has  inspired  his  readers  with  such  affec- 
tion to  his  own  personality.  I  can  well  remember  as 
far  back  as  when  "  The  Lord  of  the  Isles  "  was  first  re- 
published  in  Boston,  in  1815,  —  my  own  and  my  school- 
fellows' joy  in  the  book.  "  Marmion  "  and  "  The  Lay  " 
had  gone  before,  but  we  were  then  learning  to  spell. 
In  the  face  of  the  later  novels,  we  still  claim  that  his 
poetry  is  the  delight  of  boys.  But  this  means  that 
when  we  re-open  these  old  books  we  all  consent  to  be 
boys  again.  We  tread  over  our  youthful  grounds  with 
joy.  Critics  have  found  them  to  be  only  rhymed  prose. 
But  I  believe  that  many  of  those  who  read  them  in 
youth,  when,  later,  they  come  to  dismiss  finally  their 


312  WALTER   SCOTT. 

school-days'  library,  will  make  some  fond  exception  for 
Scott  as  for  Byron. 

It  is  easy  to  see  the  origin  of  his  poems.  His  own 
ear  had  been  charmed  by  old  ballads  crooned  by  Scot- 
tish dames  at  firesides,  and  written  down  from  their 
lips  by  antiquaries  ;  and,  finding  them  now  outgrown 
and  dishonored  by  the  new  culture,  he  attempted  to 
dignify  and  adapt  them  to  the  times  in  which  he  lived- 
Just  so  much  thought,  so  much  picturesque  detail  in 
dialogue  or  description  as  the  old  ballad  required,  so 
much  suppression  of  details  and  leaping  to  the  event, 
he  would  keep  and  use,  but  without  any  ambition  to 
write  a  high  poem  after  a  classic  model.  He  made  no 
pretension  to  the  lofty  style  of  Spenser,  or  Milton,  or 
Wordsworth.  Compared  with  their  purified  songs,  pu- 
rified of  all  ephemeral  color  or  material,  his  were  vers 
de  societe.  But  he  had  the  skill  proper  to  vers  de  societe, 
—  skill  to  fit  his  verse  to  his  topic,  and  not  to  write  sol- 
emn pentameters  alike  on  a  hero  or  a  spaniel.  His  good 
sense  probably  elected  the  ballad  to  make  his  audience 
larger.  He  apprehended  in  advance  the  immense  en- 
largement of  the  reading  public,  which  almost  dates 
from  the  era  of  his  books,  —  which  his  books  and  By- 
ron's inaugurated  ;  and  which,  though  until  then  un- 
heard of,  has  become  familiar  to  the  present  time. 

If  the  success  of  his  poems,  however  large,  was  par- 
tial, that  of  his  novels  was  complete.  The  tone  of 
strength  in  "  Waverley  "  at  once  announced  the  master, 
and  was  more  than  justified  by  the  superior  genius  of 
the  following  romances  up  to  the  "  Bride  of  Lammer- 
moor,"  which  almost  goes  back  to  ^Eschylus  for  a  coun- 
terpart, as  a  painting  of  Fate,  —  leaving  on  every  reader 
the  impression  of  the  highest  and  purest  tragedy. 


WALTER   SCOTT.  313 

His  power  on  the  public  mind  rests  on  the  singular 
union  of  two  influences.  By  nature,  by  his  reading  and 
taste  an  aristocrat,  in  a  time  and  country  which  easily 
gave  him  that  bias,  he  had  the  virtues  and  graces  of 
that  class,  and  by  his  eminent  humanity  and  his  love  of 
labor  escaped  its  harm.  He  saw  in  the  English  Church 
the  symbol  and  seal  of  all  social  order  ;  in  the  histor- 
ical aristocracy  the  benefits  to  the  State  which  Burke 
claimed  for  it  ;  and  in  his  own  reading  and  research, 
such  store  of  legend  and  renown  as  won  his  imagination 
to  their  cause.  Not  less  his  eminent  humanity  delighted 
in  the  sense  and  virtue  and  wit  of  the  common  people. 
In  his  own  household  and  neighbors  he  found  charac- 
ters and  pets  of  humble  class,  with  whom  he  established 
the  best  relation,  —  small  farmers  and  tradesmen,  shep- 
herds, fishermen,  gypsies,  peasant-girls,  crones,  —  and 
came  with  these  into  real  ties  of  mutual  help  and  good- 
will. From  these  originals  he  drew  so  genially  his 
Jeanie  Deans,  his  Dinmonts  and  Edie  Ochiltrees,  Ca- 
leb Balderstones  and  Fairservices,  Cuddie  Headriggs, 
Dominies,  Meg  Merrilies  and  Jenny  Rintherouts,  full 
of  life  and  reality  ;  making  these,  too,  the  pivots  on 
which  the  plots  of  his  stories  turn  ;  and  meantime  with- 
out one  word  of  brag  of  this  discernment,  —  nay,  this 
extreme  sympathy  reaching  down  to  every  beggar  and 
beggar's  dog,  and  horse  and  cow.  In  the  number  and 
variety  of  his  characters  he  approaches  Shakspeare. 
Other  painters  in  verse  or  prose  have  thrown  into  liter- 
ature a  few  type-figures  ;  as  Cervantes,  DeFoe,  Rich- 
ardson, Goldsmith,  Sterne  and  Fielding  ;  but  Scott  por- 
trayed with  equal  strength  and  success  every  figure  in 
his  crowded  company. 

His  strong  good  sense  saved  him  from  the  faults  and 


314  WALTER   SCOTT. 

foibles  incident  to  poets,  —  from  nervous  egotism,  sham 
modesty,  or  jealousy.  He  played  ever  a  manly  part. 
With  such  a  fortune  and  such  a  genius,  we  should  look 
to  see  what  heavy  toll  the  Fates  took  of  him,  as  of 
Rousseau  or  Voltaire,  of  Swift  or  Byron.  But  no  :  he 
had  no  insanity,  or  vice,  or  blemish.  He  was  a  thor- 
oughly upright,  wise  and  great-hearted  man,  equal  to 
whatever  event  or  fortune  should  try  him.  Disasters 
only  drove  him  to  immense  exertion.  What  an  orna- 
ment and  safeguard  is  humor  !  Far  better  than  wit  for 
a  poet  and  writer.  It  is  a  genius  itself,  and  so  defends 
from  the  insanities. 

Under  what  rare  conjunction  of  stars  was  this  man 
born,  that,  wherever  he  lived,  he  found  superior  men, 
passed  all  his  life  in  the  best  company,  and  still  found 
himself  the  best  of  the  best !  He  was  apprenticed  at 
Edinburgh  to  a  Writer  to  the  Signet,  and  became  a 
Writer  to  the  Signet,  and  found  himself  in  his  youth 
and  manhood  and  age  in  the  society  of  Mackintosh, 
Horner,  Jeffrey,  Playfair,  Dugald  Stewart,  Sydney 
Smith,  Leslie,  Sir  William  Hamilton,  Wilson,  Hogg, 
De  Quincey,  —  to  name  only  some  of  his  literary  neigh- 
bors, and,  as  soon  as  he  died,  all  this  brilliant  circle  was 
broken  up. 


REMARKS 


AT  THE  MEETING  FOR  ORGANIZING  THE  FREE  RELIGIOUS  ASSO- 
CIATION, BOSTON,  MAY  30,  1867. 


REMARKS  AT  THE   MEETING  FOR  OR- 
GANIZING THE   FREE   RELIGIOUS 
ASSOCIATION. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  : 

I  hardly  felt,  in  finding  this  house  this  morning,  that 
I  had  coine  into  the  right  hall.  I  came,  as  I  supposed 
myself  summoned,  to  a  little  committee  meeting,  for 
some  practical  end,  where  I  should  happily  and  humbly 
learn  my  lesson  ;  and  I  supposed  myself  no  longer  sub- 
ject to  your  call  when  I  saw  this  house.  I  have  listened 
with  great  pleasure  to  the  lessons  which  we  have  heard. 
To  many,  to  those  last  spoken,  I  have  found  so  much  in 
accord  with  my  own  thought  that  I  have  little  left  to 
say.  I  think  that  it  does  great  honor  to  the  sensibility 
of  the  committee  that  they  have  felt  the  universal  de- 
mand in  the  community  for  just  the  movement  they 
have  begun.  I  say  again,  in  the  phrase  used  by  my 
friend,  that  we  began  many  years  ago,  —  yes,  and  many 
ages  before  that.  But  I  think  the  necessity  very  great, 
and  it  has  prompted  an  equal  magnanimity,  that  thus 
invites  all  classes,  all  religious  men,  whatever  their 
connections,  whatever  their  specialties,  in  whatever  re- 
lation they  stand  to  the  Christian  Church,  to  unite  in  a 
movement  of  benefit  to  men,  under  the  sanction  of  re- 
ligion. We  are  all  very  sensible,  —  it  is  forced  on  us 


318   REMARKS  AT  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF 

every  day,  —  of  the  feeling  that  churches  are  outgrown  ; 
that  the  creeds  are  outgrown  ;  that  a  technical  theology 
no  longer  suits  us.  It  is  not  the  ill-will  of  people  —  no, 
indeed,  but  the  incapacity  for  confining  themselves 
there.  The  Church  is  not  large  enough  for  the  man  ;  it 
cannot  inspire  the  enthusiasm  which  is  the  parent  of 
everything  good  in  history,  which  makes  the  romance 
of  history.  For  that  enthusiasm  you  must  have  some- 
thing greater  than  yourselves,  and  not  less. 

The  child,  the  young  student,  finds  scope  in  his  math- 
ematics and  chemistry  or  natural  history,  because  he 
finds  a  truth  larger  than  he  is  ;  finds  himself  continu- 
ally instructed.  But,  in  churches,  every  healthy  and 
thoughtful  mind  finds  itself  in  something  less  ;  it  is 
checked,  cribbed,  confined.  And  the  statistics  of  the 
American,  the  English  and  the  German  cities,  showing 
that  the  mass  of  the  population  is  leaving  off  going  to 
church,  indicate  the  necessitv,  Avliich  should  have  been 
foreseen,  that  the  Church  should  always  be  new  and 
extemporized,  because  it  is  eternal  and  springs  from  the 
sentiment  of  men,  or  it  does  not  exist.  One  wonders 
sometimes  that  the  churches  still  retain  so  many  vota- 
ries, when  he  reads  the  histories  of  the  Church.  There 
is  an  element  of  childish  infatuation  in  them  which  does 
not  exalt  our  respect  for  man.  Read  in  Michelet,  that 
in  Europe,  for  twelve  or  fourteen  centuries,  God  the 
Father  had  no  temple  and  no  altar.  The  Holy  Ghost 
and  the  Son  of  Mary  were  worshipped,  and,  in  the  thir- 
teenth century,  the  First  Person  began  to  appear  at  the 
side  of  his  Son,  in  pictures  and  in  sculpture,  for  wor- 
ship, but  only  through  favor  of  his  Son.  These  morti- 
fying puerilities  abound  in  religious  history.  But  as 
soon  as  every  man  is  apprised  of  the  Divine  Presence 


THE    FREE    RELIGIOUS   ASSOCIATION.        319 

within  his  own  mind,  —  is  apprised  that  the  perfect  law 
of  duty  corresponds  with  the  laws  of  chemistry,  of  veg- 
etation, of  astronomy,  as  face  to  face  in  a  glass  ;  that 
the  basis  of  duty,  the  order  of  society,  the  power  of 
character,  the  wealth  of  culture,  the  perfection  of  taste, 
all  draw  their  essence  from  this  moral  sentiment,  then 
we  have  a  religion  that  exalts,  that  commands  all  the 
social  and  all  the  private  action. 

What  strikes  me  in  the  sudden  movement  which 
brings  together  to-day  so  many  separated  friends, — 
separated  but  sympathetic,  —  and  what  I  expected  to 
find  here  was,  some  practical  suggestions  by  which  we 
were  to  reanimate  and  reorganize  for  ourselves  the  true 
Church,  the  pure  worship.  Pure  doctrine  always  bears 
fruit  iii  pure  benefits.  It  is  only  by  good  works,  it  is 
only  on  the  basis  of  active  duty,  that  worship  finds  ex- 
pression. What  is  best  in  the  ancient  religions  was  the 
sacred  friendships  between  heroes,  the  Sacred  Bands, 
and  the  relations  of  the  Pythagorean  disciples.  Our 
Masonic  institutions  probably  grew  from  the  like  origin. 
The  close  association  which  bound  the  first  disciples  of 
Jesus  is  another  example  ;  and  it  were  easy  to  find 
more.  The  soul  of  our  late  war,  which  will  always  be 
remembered  as  dignifying  it,  was,  first,  the  desire  to 
abolish  slavery  in  this  country,  and  secondly,  to  abolish 
the  mischief  of  the  war  itself,  by  healing  and  saving 
the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers,  —  and  this  by  the  sacred 
bands  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  I  wish  that  the  va- 
rious beneficent  institutions  which  are  springing  up,  like 
joyful  plants  of  wholesomeness,  all  over  this  country, 
should  all  be  remembered  as  within  the  sphere  of  this 
committee,  —  almost  all  of  them  are  represented  here, 


320  FREE   RELIGIOUS   ASSOCIATION. 

—  and  that  within  this  little  band  that  has  gathered 
here  to-day  should  grow  friendship.  The  interests  that 
grow  out  of  a  meeting  like  this  should  bind  us  with 
new  strength  to  the  old  eternal  duties. 


SPEECH 


AT  THE  SECOND  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  FREE  RELIGIOUS 
ASSOCIATION,  AT  TREMONT  TEMPLE,  FRIDAY,  MAY  38, 18». 

21 


SPEECH. 


'  FRIENDS  : 

I  wish  I  could  deserve  anything  of  the  kind  expres- 
sion of  my  friend,  the  President,  and  the  kind  good- 
will which  the  audience  signifies,  but  it  is  not  in  my 
power  to-day  to  meet  the  natural  demands  of  the  occa- 
sion, and,  quite  against  my  design  and  my  will,  I  shall 
have  to  request  the  attention  of  the  audience  to  a  few 
written  remarks,  instead  of  the  more  extensive  state- 
ment which  I  had  hoped  to  offer  them. 

I  think  we  have  disputed  long  enough.  I  think  we 
might  now  relinquish  our  theological  controversies  to 
communities  more  idle  and  ignorant  than  we.  I  am 
glad  that  a  more  realistic  church  is  coming  to  be  the 
tendency  of  society,  and  that  we  are  likely  one  day  to 
forget  our  obstinate  polemics  in  the  ambition  to  excel 
each  other  in  good  works.  I  have  no  wish  to  proselyte 
any  reluctant  mind,  nor,  I  think,  have  I  any  curiosity 
or  impulse  to  intrude  on  those  whose  ways  of  thinking 
differ  from  mine.  But  as  my  friend,  your  presiding 
officer,  has  asked  me  to  take  at  least  some  small  part  in 
this  day's  conversation,  I  am  ready  to  give,  as  often  be- 
fore, the  first  simple  foundation  of  my  belief,  that  the 
Author  of  Nature  has  not  left  himself  without  a  witness 
in  any  sane  mind  :  that  the  moral  sentiment  speaks  to 
every  main  the  law  after  which  the  Universe  was  made  ; 


324      SPEECH   AT    THE   ANNUAL   MEETING  OF 

that  we  find  parity,  identity  of  design,  through  Nature, 
and  benefit  to  be  the  uniform  aim  :  that  there  is  a  force 
always  at  work  to  make  the  best  better  and  the  worst 
good.  We  have  had  not  long  since  presented  us  by 
Max  Miiller  a  valuable  paragraph  from  St.  Augustine, 
—  not  at  all  extraordinary  in  itself,  but  only  as  coming 
from  that  eminent  Father  in  the  Church,  and  at  that 
age,  —  in  which  St.  Augustine  writes  :  "  That  which  is 
now  called  the  Christian  religion  existed  among  the  an- 
cients, and  never  did  not  exist  from  the  planting  of  the 
human  race  until  Christ  came  in  the  flesh,  at  which  time 
the  true  religion  which  already  existed  began  to  be  called 
Christianity."  I  believe  that  not  only  Christianity  is  as 
old  as  the  Creation,  —  not  only  every  sentiment  and  pre- 
cept of  Christianity  can  be  paralleled  in  other  religious 
writings, — but  more,  that  a  man  of  religious  suscepti- 
bility, and  one  at  the  same  time  conversant  with  many 
men,  —  say  a  much-travelled  man,  —  can  find  the  same 
idea  in  numberless  conversations.  The  religious  find  re- 
ligion wherever  they  associate.  When  I  find  in  people 
narrow  religion,  I  find  also  in  them  narrow  reading. 
Nothing  really  is  so  self-publishing,  so  divulgatory,  as 
thought.  It  cannot  be  confined  or  hid.  It  is  easily 
carried  ;  it  takes  no  room  ;  the  knowledge  of  Europe 
looks  out  into  Persia  and  India,  and  to  the  very  Kaffirs. 
Every  proverb,  every  fine  text,  every  pregnant  jest, 
travels  across  the  line  ;  and  you  will  find  it  at  Cape 
Town,  or  among  the  Tartars.  We  are  all  believers  in 
natural  religion  ;  we  all  agree  that  the  health  and  in- 
tegrity of  man  is  self-respect,  self-subsistency,  a  regard 
to  natural  conscience.  All  education  is  to  accustom  him 
to  trust  himself,  discriminate  between  his  higher  and 
lower  thoughts,  exert  the  timid  faculties  until  they  are 


THE   FREE   RELIGIOUS   ASSOCIATION.        325 

robust,  and  thus  train  him  to  self-help,  until  he  ceases 
to  be  an  underling,  a  tool,  and  becomes  a  benefactor. 
I  think  wise  men  wish  their  religion  to  be  all  of  this 
kind,  teaching  the  agent  to  go  alone,  not  to  hang  on  the 
world  as  a  pensioner,  a  permitted  person,  but  an  adult, 
self-searching  soul,  brave  to  assist  or  resist  a  world  : 
only  humble  and  docile  before  the  source  of  the  wisdom 
he  has  discovered  within  him. 

As  it  is,  every  believer  holds  a  different  creed  ;  that 
is,  all  the  churches  are  churches  of  one  member.  All 
our  sects  have  refined  the  point  of  difference  between 
them.  The  point  of  difference  that  still  remains  be- 
tween churches,  or  between  classes,  is  in  the  addition  to 
the  moral  code,  that  is,  to  natural  religion,  of  somewhat 
positive  and  historical.  I  think  that  to  be,  as  Mr.  Ab- 
bott has  stated  it  in  his  form,  the  one  difference  re- 
maining. I  object,  of  coarse,  to  the  claim  of  miracu- 
lous dispensation, — certainly  not  to  the  doctrine  of 
Christianity.  This  claim  impairs,  to  nay  mind,  the 
soundness  of  him  who  makes  it,  and  indisposes  us  to  his 
communion.  This  comes  the  wrong  way ;  it  comes 
from  without,  not  within.  This  positive,  historical,  au- 
thoritative scheme  is  not  consistent  with  our  experience 
or  our  expectations.  It  is  something  not  in  Nature  :  it 
is  contrary  to  that  law  of  nature  which  all  wise  men  rec- 
ognize ;  namely,  never  to  require  a  larger  cause  than  is 
necessary  to  the  effect.  George  Fox,  the  Quaker,  said 
that,  though  he  read  of  Christ  and  God,  he  knew  them 
only  from  the  like  spirit  in  his  own  soul.  We  want  all 
the  aids  to  our  moral  training.  We  cannot  spare  the 
vision  nor  the  virtue  of  the  saints  ;  but  let  it  be  by  pure 
sympathy,  not  with  any  personal  or  official  claim.  If 
you  are  childish,  and  exhibit  jour  saint  as  a  worker  of 


326      SPEECH    AT    THE    ANNUAL   MEETING    OF 

wonders,  a  thaumaturgist,  I  am  repelled.  That  claim 
takes  his  teachings  out  of  logic  and  out  of  nature,  and 
permits  official  and  arbitrary  senses  to  be  grafted  on 
the  teachings.  It  is  the  praise  of  our  New  Testament 
that  its  teachings  go  to  the  honor  and  benefit  of  human- 
ity, —  that  no  better  lesson  has  been  taught  or  incar- 
nated. Let  it  stand,  beautiful  and  wholesome,  with 
whatever  is  most  like  it  in  the  teaching  a*id  practice  of 
men  ;  but  do  not  attempt  to  elevate  it  out  of  humanity 
by  saying,  "  This  was  not  a  man,"  for  then  you  con- 
found it  with  the  fables  of  every  popular  religion,  and 
my  distrust  of  the  story  makes  me  distrust  the  doctrine 
as  soon  as  it  differs  from  my  own  belief. 

Whoever  thinks  a  story  gains  by  the  prodigious,  by 
adding  something  out  of  nature,  robs  it  more  than  he 
adds.  It  is  no  longer  an  example,  a  model  ;  no  longer  a 
heart-stirring  hero,  but  an  exhibition,  a  wonder,  an  anom- 
aly, removed  out  of  the  range  of  influence  with  thought- 
ful men.  I  submit  that  in  sound  frame  of  mind,  we 
read  or  remember  the  religious  sayings  and  oracles  of 
other  men,  whether  Jew  or  Indian,  or  Greek  or  Persian, 
only  for  friendship,  only  for  joy  in  the  social  identity 
which  they  open  to  us,  and  that  these  words  would  have 
no  weight  with  us  if  we  had  not  the  same  conviction 
already.  I  find  something  stingy  in  the  unwilling  and 
disparaging  admission  of  these  foreign  opinions,  —  opin- 
ions from  all  parts  of  the  world,  —  by  our  churchmen, 
as  if  only  to  enhance  by  their  dimness  the  superior 
light  of  Christianity.  Meantime,  observe,  you  cannot 
bring  rne  too  good  a  word,  too  dazzling  a  hope,  too  pen- 
etrating an  insight  from  the  Jews.  I  hail  every  one 
with  delight,  as  showing  the  riches  of  my  brother,  my 
fellow-soul,  who  could  thus  think  and  thus  greatly  feel. 


THE   FREE    RELIGIOUS   ASSOCIATION.        327 

Zealots  eagerly  fasten  their  eyes  on  the  differences  be- 
tween their  creed  and  yours,  but  the  charm  of  the  study 
is  in  finding  the  agreements,  the  identities,  in  all  the 
religions  of  men. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  each  sect  complain  that  they  do  not 
now  hold  the  opinions  they  are  charged  with.  The  earth 
moves,  and  the  mind  opens.  I  am  glad  to  believe  soci- 
ety contains  a  class  of  humble  souls  who  enjoy  the  lux- 
ury of  a  religion  that  does  not  degrade  ;  who  think  it 
the  highest  worship  to  expect  of  Heaven  the  most  and 
the  best  ;  who  do  not  wonder  that  there  was  a  Christ, 
but  that  there  were  not  a  thousand  ;  who  have  con- 
ceived an  infinite  hope  for  mankind  ;  who  believe  that 
the  history  of  Jesus  is  the  history  of  every  man,  written 
large. 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

A  LECTURE  DELIVERED  AT  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH,  BOS- 
TON, MARCH  30,  1878. 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 


IT  is  a  rule  that  holds  in  economy  as  well  as  in  hy- 
draulics, that  you  must  have  a  source  higher  than  your 
tap.  The  mills,  the  shops,  the  theatre  and  the  caucus,  the 
college  and  the  church,  have  all  found  out  this  secret- 
The  sailors  sail  by  chronometers  that  do  not  lose  two  or 
three  seconds  in  a  year,  ever  since  Newton  explained  to 
Parliament  that  the  way  to  improve  navigation  was  to 
get  good  watches,  and  to  offer  public  premiums  for  a 
better  time-keeper  than  any  then  in  use.  The  manu- 
facturers rely  on  turbines  of  hydraulic  perfection  ;  the 
carpet-mill,  on  mordants  and  dyes  which  exhaust  the 
skill  of  the  chemist  ;  the  calico  print,  on  designers  of 
genius  who  draw  the  wages  of  artists,  not  of  artisans. 
Wedgwood,  the  eminent  potter,  bravely  took  the  sculp- 
tor Flaxman  to  counsel,  who  said,  "  Send  to  Italy,  search 
the  museums  for  the  forms  of  old  Etruscan  vases,  urns, 
water-pots,  domestic  and  sacrificial  vessels  of  all  kinds." 
They  built  great  works  and  called  their  manufacturing 
village  Etruria.  Flaxman,  with  his  Greek  taste,  se- 
lected and  combined  the  loveliest  forms,  which  were 
executed  in  English  clay  ;  sent  boxes  of  these  as  gifts 
to  every  court  of  Europe,  and  formed  the  taste  of  the 
world.  It  was  a  renaissance  of  the  breakfast-table  and 
china-closet.  The  brave  manufacturers  made  their  for- 


332    THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

tune.  The  jewellers  imitated  the  revived  models  in 
silver  and  gold. 

The  theatre  avails  itself  of  the  best  talent  of  poet, 
of  painter,  and  of  amateur  of  taste,  to  make  the  ensem- 
ble of  dramatic  effect.  The  marine  insurance  office  has 
its  mathematical  counsellor  to  settle  averages  ;  the  life- 
assurance,  its  table  of  annuities.  The  wine  merchant 
has  his  analyst  and  taster,  the  more  exquisite  the  better. 
He  has  also,  I  fear,  his  debts  to  the  chemist  as  well  as 
to  the  vineyard. 

Our  modern  wealth  stands  on  a  few  staples,  and  the 
interest  nations  took  in  our  war  was  exasperated  by  the 
importance  of  the  cotton  trade.  And  what  is  cotton  ? 
One  plant  out  of  some  two  hundred  thousand  known  to 
the  botanist,  vastly  the  larger  part  of  which  are  reck- 
oned weeds.  What  is  a  weed  ?  A  plant  whose  virtues 
have  not  yet  been  discovered,  —  every  one  of  the  two 
hundred  thousand  probably  yet  to  be  of  utility  in  the 
arts.  As  Bacchus  of  the  vine,  Ceres  of  the  wheat,  as 
Arkwright  and  Whitney  were  the  demi-gods  of  cotton, 
so  prolific  Time  will  yet  bring  an  inventor  to  every 
plant.  There  is  not  a  property  in  nature  but  a  mind  is 
born  to  seek  and  find  it.  For  it  is  not  the  plants  or  the 
animals,  innumerable  as  they  are,  nor  the  whole  maga- 
zine of  material  nature  that  can  give  the  sum  of  power, 
but  the  infinite  applicability  of  these  things  in  the  hands 
of  thinking  man,  every  new  application  being  equiva- 
lent to  a  new  material. 

Our  sleepy  civilization,  ever  since  Roger  Bacon  and 
Monk  Schwartz  invented  gunpowder,  has  built  its  whole 
art  of  war,  all  fortification  by  land  and  sea,  all  drill  and 
military  education,  on  that  one  compound,  —  all  is  an 
extension  of  a  gun-barrel,  —  and  is  very  scornful  about 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.    333 

bows  and  arrows,  and  reckons  Greeks  and  Romans  and 
Middle  Ages  little  better  than  Indians  and  bow-and- 
arrow  times.  As  if  the  earth,  water,  gases,  lightning 
and  caloric  had  not  a  million  energies,  the  discovery  of 
any  one  of  which  could  change  the  art  of  war  again, 
and  put  an  end  to  war  by  the  exterminating  forces  man 
can  apply. 

Now,  if  this  is  true  in  all  the  useful  and  in  the  fine 
arts,  that  the  direction  must  be  drawn  from  a  superior 
source  or  there  will  be  no  good  work,  does  it  hold  less 
in  our  social  and  civil  life  ? 

In  our  popular  politics  you  may  note  that  each  aspi- 
rant who  rises  above  the  crowd,  however  at  first  making 
his  obedient  apprenticeship  in  party  tactics,  if  he  have 
sagacity,  soon  learns  that  it  is  by  no  means  by  obeying 
the  vulgar  weathercock  of  his  party,  the  resentments, 
the  fears  and  whims  of  it,  that  real  power  is  gamed, 
but  that  he  must  often  face  and  resist  the  party,  and 
abide  by  his  resistance,  and  put  them  in  fear  ;  that  the 
only  title  to  their  permanent  respect,  and  to  a  larger 
following,  is  to  see  for  himself  what  is  the  real  public 
interest,  and  to  stand  for  that;  —  that  is  a  principle* 
and  all  the  cheering  and  hissing  of  the  crowd  must  by 
and  by  accommodate  itself  to  it.  Our  times  easily  af- 
ford you  very  good  examples. 

The  law  of  water  and  all  fluids  is  true  of  wit.  Prince 
Metternich  said,  "  Revolutions  begin  in  the  best  heads 
and  run  steadily  down  to  the  populace."  It  is  a  very 
old  observation  ;  not  truer  because  Metternich  said  it, 
and  not  less  true. 

There  have  been  revolutions  which  were  not  in  the 
interest  of  feudalism  and  barbarism,  but  in  that  of  soci- 
ety. And  these  are  distinguished  not  by  the  numbers 


334     THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

of  the  combatants  nor  the  numbers  of  the  slain,  but  by 
the  motive.  No  interest  now  attaches  to  the  wars  of 
York  and  Lancaster,  to  the  wars  of  German,  French 
and  Spanish  emperors,  which  were  only  dynastic  wars, 
but  to  those  in  which  a  principle  was  involved.  These 
are  read  with  passionate  interest  and  never  lose  their 
pathos  by  time.  When  the  cannon  is  aimed  by  ideas, 
when  men  with  religious  convictions  are  behind  it,  when 
men  die  for  what  they  live  for,  and  the  mainspring  that 
works  daily  urges  them  to  hazard  all,  then  the  cannon 
articulates  its  explosions  with  the  voice  of  a  man,  then 
the  rifle  seconds  the  cannon  and  the  fowling-piece  the 
rifle,  and  the  women  make  the  cartridges,  and  all  shoot 
at  one  mark  ;  then  gods  join  in  the  combat  ;  then  poets 
are  born,  and  the  better  code  of  laws  at  last  records  the 
victory. 

Now  the  culmination  of  these  triumphs  of  humanity 
—  and  which  did  virtually  include  the  extinction  of 
slavery  —  is  the  planting  of  America. 

At  every  moment  some  one  country  more  than  any 
other  represents  the  sentiment  and  the  future  of  man- 
kind. None  will  doubt  that  America  occupies  this 
place  in  the  opinion  of  nations,  as  is  proved  by  the  fact 
of  the  vast  immigration  into  this  country  from  all  the 
nations  of  Western  and  Central  Europe.  And  when  the 
adventurers  have  planted  themselves  and  looked  about, 
they  send  back  all  the  money  they  can  spare  to  bring 
their  friends. 

Meantime  they  find  this  country  just  passing  through 
a  great  crisis  in  its  history,  as  necessary  as  lactation  or 
dentition  or  puberty  to  the  human  individual.  We  are 
in  these  days  settling  for  ourselves  and  our  descendants 
questions  which,  as  they  shall  be  determined  in  one  way 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.    335 

or  the  other,  will  make  the  peace  and  prosperity  or  the 
calamity  of  the  next  ages.  The  questions  of  Education, 
of  Society,  of  Labor,  the  direction  of  talent,  of  charac- 
ter, the  nature  and  habits  of  the  American,  may  well 
occupy  us,  and  more  the  question  of  Religion. 

The  new  conditions  of  mankind  in  America  are  really 
favorable  to  progress,  the  removal  of  absurd  restric- 
tions and  antique  inequalities.  The  mind  is  always 
better  the  more  it  is  used,  and  here  it  is  kept  in  prac- 
tice. The  humblest  is  daily  challenged  to  give  his  opin- 
ion on  practical  questions,  and  while  civil  and  social 
freedom  exists,  nonsense  even  has  a  favorable  effect. 
Cant  is  good  to  provoke  common  sense.  The  Catholic 
Church,  the  trance-mediums,  the  rebel  paradoxes,  exas- 
perate the  common  sense.  The  wilder  the  paradox,  the 
more  sure  is  Punch  to  put  it  in  the  pillory. 

The  lodging  the  power  in  the  people,  as  in  republican 
forms,  has  the  effect  of  holding  things  closer  to  com- 
mon sense  ;  for  a  court  or  an  aristocracy,  which  must 
always  be  a  small  minority,  can  more  easily  run  into 
follies  than  a  republic,  which  has  too  many  observers, 
—  each  with  a  vote  in  his  hand,  —  to  allow  its  head  to 
be  turned  by  any  kind  of  nonsense  :  since  hunger, 
thirst,  cold,  the  cries  of  children,  and  debt,  are  always 
holding  the  masses  hard  to  the  essential  duties. 

One  hundred  years  ago  the  American  people  attempted 
to  carry  out  the  bill  ol  political  rights  to  an  almost 
ideal  perfection.  They  h  :,ve  made  great  strides  in  that 
direction  since.  They  are  now  proceeding,  instructed 
by  their  success  and  by  their  many  failures,  to  carry 
out,  not  the  bill  of  rights,  but  the  bill  of  human  duties. 

And  look  what  revolution  that  attempt  involves. 
Hitherto  government  has  been  that  of  the  single  person 


336    THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

or  of  the  aristocracy.  In  this  country  the  attempt  to 
resist  these  elements,  it  is  asserted,  must  throw  us  into 
the  government  not  quite  of  mobs,  but  in  practice  of  au 
inferior  class  of  professional  politicians,  who  by  means 
of  newspapers  and  caucuses  really  thrust  their  unwor- 
thy minority  into  the  place  of  the  old  aristocracy  on  the 
one  side,  and  of  the  good,  industrious,  well-taught  but 
unambitious  population  on  the  other,  win  the  posts  of 
power,  and  give  their  direction  to  affairs.  Hence  lib- 
eral congresses  and  legislatures  ordain,  to  the  surprise 
of  the  people,  equivocal,  interested  and  vicious  meas- 
ures. The  men  themselves  are  suspected  and  charged 
with  lobbying  and  being  lobbied.  No  measure  is  at- 
tempted for  itself,  but  the  opinion  of  the  people  is 
courted  in  the  first  place,  and  the  measures  are  perfunc- 
torily carried  through  as  secondary.  We  do  not  choose 
our  own  candidate,  no,  nor  any  other  man's  first  choice, 
—  but  only  the  available  candidate,  whom,  perhaps,  no 
man  loves.  We  do  not  speak  what  we  think,  but  grope 
after  the  practicable  and  available.  Instead  of  charac- 
ter, there  is  a  studious  exclusion  of  character.  The 
people  are  feared  and  flattered.  They  are  not  repri- 
manded. The  country  is  governed  in  bar-rooms,  and  in 
the  mind  of  bar-rooms.  The  low  can  best  win  the  low, 
and  each  aspirant  for  power  vies  with  his  rival  which 
can  stoop  lowest,  and  depart  widest  from  himself. 

The  partisan  on  moral,  eve  i  on  religious  questions, 
will  choose  a  proven  rogue  who  can  answer  the  tests, 
over  an  honest,  affectionate,  noble  gentleman  ;  the  par- 
tisan ceasing  to  be  a  man  that  he  may  be  a  sectarian. 

The  spirit  of  our  political  economy  is  low  and  degrad- 
ing. The  precious  metals  are  not  so  precious  as  they 
are  esteemed.  Man  exists  for  his  own  sake,  and  not  to 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.    337 

add  a  laborer  to  the  state.  The  spirit  of  our  political 
action,  for  the  most  part,  considers  nothing  less  than 
the  sacredness  of  man.  Party  sacrifices  man  to  the 
measure. 

We  have  seen  the  great  party  of  property  and  edu- 
cation in  the  country  drivelling  and  huckstering  away, 
for  views  of  party  fear  or  advantage,  every  principle 
of  humanity  and  the  dearest  hopes  of  mankind  ;  the 
trustees  of  power  only  energetic  when  mischief  could  be 
done,  imbecile  as  corpses  when  evil  was  to  be  prevented. 

Our  great  men  succumb  so  far  to  the  forms  of  the 
day  as  to  peril  their  integrity  for  the  sake  of  adding  to 
the  weight  of  their  personal  character  the  authority  of 
office,  or  making  a  real  government  titular.  Our  poli- 
tics are  full  of  adventurers,  who  having  by  education 
and  social  innocence  a  good  repute  in  the  state,  break 
away  from  the  law  of  honesty  and  think  they  can  afford 
to  join  the  devil's  party.  'T  is  odious,  these  offenders 
in  high  life.  You  rally  to  the  support  of  old  charities 
and  the  cause  of  literature,  and  there,  to  be  sure,  are 
these  brazen  faces.  In  this  innocence  you  are  puzzled 
how  to  meet  them  ;  must  shake  hands  with  them,  under 
protest.  We  feel  toward  them  as  the  minister  about 
the  Cape  Cod  farm,  —  in  the  old  time  when  the  minister 
was  still  invited,  in  the  spring,  to  make  a  prayer  for  the 
blessing  of  a  piece  of  land,  —  the  good  pastor  being 
brought  to  the  spot,  stopped  short :  "  No,  this  land  does 
not  want  a  prayer,  this  land  wants  manure." 

"  'T  u  virtue  which  they  want,  and  wanting  it, 
Honor  no  garment  to  their  backs  can  fit." 

Parties  keep  the  old  names,  but  exhibit  a  surprising 
fugacity  in  creeping  out  of  one  snake-skin  into  another 
of  equal  ignominy  and  lubricity,  and  the  grasshopper 
22 


338    THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

on  the  turret  of  Faneuil  Hall  gives  a  proper  hint  of  the 
men  below. 

Everything  yields.  The  very  glaciers  are  viscous,  or 
regelate  into  conformity,  and  the  stiff est  patriots  falter 
and  compromise  ;  so  that  will  cannot  be  depended  on  to 
save  us. 

How  rare  are  acts  of  will  !  We  are  all  living  accord- 
ing to  custom  ;  we  do  as  other  people  do,  and  shrink 
from  an  act  of  our  own.  Every  such  act  makes  a  man 
famous,  and  we  can  all  count  the  few  cases,  —  half  a 
dozen  in  our  time,  —  when  a  public  man  ventured  to 
act  as  he  thought,  without  waiting  for  orders  or  for 
public  opinion.  John  Quincy  Adams  was  a  man  of  an 
audacious  independence  that  always  kept  the  public 
curiosity  alive  in  regard  to  what  he  might  do.  None 
could  predict  his  word,  and  a  whole  Congress  could  not 
gainsay  it  when  it  was  spoken.  General  Jackson  was 
a  man  of  will,  and  his  phrase  on  one  memorable  occa- 
sion, "  I  will  take  the  responsibility,"  is  a  proverb  ever 
since. 

The  American  marches  with  a  careless  swagger  to  the 
height  of  power,  very  heedless  of  his  own  liberty  or  of 
other  people's,  in  his  reckless  confidence  that  he  can 
have  all  he  wants,  risking  all  the  prized  charters  of  the 
human  race,  bought  with  battles  and  revolutions  and 
religion,  gambling  them  all  away  for  a  paltry  selfish 
gain. 

He  sits  secure  in  the  possession  of  his  vast  domain, 
rich  beyond  all  experience  in  resources,  sees  its  inevi- 
table force  unlocking  itself  in  elemental  order  day  by 
day,  year  by  year  ;  looks  from  his  coal-fields,  his  wheat- 
bearing  prairie,  his  gold-mines,  to  his  two  oceans  on 
either  side,  and  feels  the  security  that  there  can  be  no 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.    339 

famine  in  a  country  reaching  through  so  many  latitudes, 
no  want  that  cannot  be  supplied,  no  danger  from  any 
excess  of  importation  of  art  or  learning  into  a  country 
of  such  native  strength,  such  immense  digestive  power. 

In  proportion  to  the  personal  ability  of  each  man,  he 
feels  the  invitation  and  career  which  the  country  opens 
to 'him.  He  is  easily  fed  with  wheat  and  game,  with 
Ohio  wine,  but  his  brain  is  also  pampered  by  finer 
draughts,  by  political  power,  and  by  the  power  in  the 
railroad  board,  in  the  mills,  or  the  banks.  This  elevates 
his  spirits,  and  gives,  of  course,  an  easy  self-reliance  that 
makes  him  self-willed  and  unscrupulous. 

I  think  this  levity  is  a  reaction  on  the  people  from 
the  extraordinary  advantages  and  invitations  of  their 
condition.  When  we  are  most  disturbed  by  their  rash 
and  immoral  voting,  it  is  not  malignity,  but  reckless- 
ness. They  are  careless  of  politics,  because  they  do  not 
entertain  the  possibility  of  being  seriously  caught  in 
meshes  of  legislation.  They  feel  strong  and  irresistible. 
They  believe  that  what  they  have  enacted  they  can 
repeal  if  they  do  not  like  it.  But  one  may  run  a  risk 
once  too  often.  They  stay  away  from  the  polls,  saying 
that  one  vote  can  do  no  good  !  Or  they  take  another 
step,  and  say,  One  vote  can  do  no  harm  !  and  vote  for 
something  which  they  do  not  approve,  because  their 
party  or  set  votes  for  it.  Of  course  this  puts  them  in 
the  power  of  any  party  having  a  steady  interest  to  pro- 
mote which  does  not  conflict  manifestly  with  the  pecun- 
iary interest  of  the  voters.  But  if  they  should  come  to 
be  interested  in  themselves  and  in  their  career,  they 
would  no  more  stay  away  from  the  election  than  from 
their  own  counting-room  or  the  house  of  their  friend. 

The  people  are  right-minded  enough  on  ethical  ques- 


340     THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

tions,  but  they  must  pay  their  debts,  and  must  have  the 
means  of  living  well,  and  not  pinching.  So  it  is  useless 
to  rely  on  them  to  go  to  a  meeting,  or  to  give  a  vote,  if 
any  check  from  this  rnust-have-the-money  side  arises. 
If  a  customer  looks  grave. at  their  newspaper,  or  damns 
their  member  of  Congress,  they  take  another  newspaper, 
and  vote  for  another  man.  They  must  have  money,  for 
a  certain  style  of  living  fast  becomes  necessary;  they 
must  take  wine  at  the  hotel,  first,  for  the'look  of  it,  and 
second,  for  the  purpose  of  sending  the  bottle  to  two  Oi- 
three  gentlemen  at  the  table  ;  and  presently  because 
they  have  got  the  taste,  and  do  not  feel  that  they  have 
dined  without  it. 

The  record  of  the  election  now  and  then  alarms  peo- 
ple by  the  all  but  unanimous  choice  of  a  rogue  and 
brawler.  But  how  was  it  done  ?  What  lawless  mob 
burst  into  the  polls  and  threw  in  these  hundreds  of  bal- 
lots in  defiance  of  the  magistrates  ?  This  was  done  by 
the  very  men  you  know,  —  the  mildest,  most  sensible, 
best-natured  people.  The  only  account  of  this  is,  that 
they  have  been  scared  or  warped  into  some  association 
in  their  mind  of  the  candidate  with  the  interest  of  their 
trade  or  of  their  property. 

Whilst  each  cabal  urges  its  candidate,  and  at  last 
brings,  with  cheers  and  street  -  demonstrations,  men 
whose  names  are  a  knell  to  all  hope  of  progress,  the 
good  and  wise  are  hidden  in  their  active  retirements, 
and  are  quite  out  of  question. 

"  Tasse  we  must  join  to  wake,  for  these  are  of  the  strain 
That  justice  dare  defend,  and  will  the  age  maintain." 

Yet  we  know,  all  over  this  country,  men  of  integrity, 
capable  of  action  and  of  affairs,  with  the  deepest  sym- 
pathy in  all  that  concerns  the  public,  mortified  by  the 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THK  REPUBLIC.    341 

national    disgrace,  and    quite  capable  of   any  sacrifice 
except  of  their  honor. 

Faults  in  the  working  appear  in  our  system,  as  in  all, 
but  the y  suggest  their1  own  remedies.  After  every  prac- 
tical mistake  out  of  which  any  disaster  grows,  the  peo- 
ple wake  and  correct  it  with  energy.  And  any  disturb- 
ances in  politics,  in  civil  or  foreign  wars,  sober  them, 
and  instantly  show  more  virtue  and  conviction  in  the 
popular  vote.  In  each  new  threat  of  faction  the  ballot 
has  been,  beyond  expectation,  right  and  decisive. 

It  is  ever  an  inspiration,  God  only  knows  whence  ;  a 
sudden,  undated  perception  of  eternal  right  coming  into 
and  correcting  things  that  were  wrong  ;  a  perception 
that  passes  through  thousands  as  readily  as  through  one. 

The  gracious  lesson  taught  by  science  to  this  country 
is,  that  the  history  of  nature  from  fii-at  to  last  is  inces- 
sant advance  from  less  to  more,  from  rude  to  finer  or- 
ganization, the  globe  of  matter  thus  conspiring-  with  the 
principle  of  undying  hope  in  man.  Nature  works  in 
immense  time,  and  spends  individuals  and  races  prodi- 
gally to  prepare  new  individuals  and  races.  The  lower 
kinds  are  one  after  one  extinguished  ;  the  higher  forms 
come  in.  The  history  of  civilization,  or  the  refining  of 
certain  races  to  wonderful  power  of  performance,  is. 
analogous  ;  but  the  best  civilization  yet  is  only  valua- 
ble as  a  ground  of  hope. 

Ours  is  the  country  of  poor  men.  Here  is  practical 
democracy  ;  here  is  the  human  race  poured  out  over  the 
continent  to  do  itself  justice  ;  all  mankind  in  its  shirt- 
sleeves ;  not  grimacing  like  poor  rich  men  in  cities,  pre- 
tending to  be  rich,  but  unmistakably  taking  off  its  cost 
to  hard  work,  when  labor  is  sure  to  pay.  This  through 


342    THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

all  the  country.  For  really,  though  you  see  wealth  in 
the  capitals,  it  is  only  a  sprinkling  of  rich  men  in  the 
cities  and  at  sparse  points  ;  the  bulk  of  the  population 
is  poor.  In  Maine,  nearly  every  man  is  a  lumberer.  In 
Massachusetts,  every  twelfth  man  is  a  shoemaker,  and 
the  rest,  millers,  farmers,  sailors,  fishermen. 

Well,  the  result  is,  instead  of  the  doleful  experience 
of  the  European  economist,  who  tells  us,  "  In  almost  all 
countries  the  condition  of  the  great  body  of  the  people 
is  poor  and  miserable,"  here  that  same  great  body  has 
arrived  at  a  sloven  plenty,  —  ham  and  corn-cakes,  tight 
roof  and  coals  enough  have  been  attained  ;  an  unbut- 
toned comfort,  not  clean,  not  thoughtful,  far  from  pol- 
ished, without  dignity  in  his  repose  ;  the  man  awkward 
and  restless  if  he  have  not  something  to  do,  but  honest 
and  kind  for  the  most  part,  understanding  his  own 
rights  and  stiff  to  maintain  them,  and  disposed  to  give 
his  children  a  better  education  than  he  received. 

The  steady  improvement  of  the  public  schools  in  the 
cities  and  the  country  enables  the  farmer  or  laborer  to 
secure  a  precious  primary  education.  It  is  rare  to  find 
a  born  American  who  cannot  read  and  write.  The  fa- 
cility with  which  clubs  are  formed  by  young  men  for 
discussion  of  social,  political  and  intellectual  topics  se- 
cures the  notoriety  of  the  questions. 

Our  institutions,  of  which  the  town  is  the  unit,  are  all 
educational,  for  responsibility  educates  fast.  The  town 
meeting  is,  after  the  high  school,  a  higher  school.  The 
legislature,  to  which  every  good  farmer  goes  once  on 
trial,  is  a  superior  academy. 

The  result  appears  in  the  power  of  invention,  the  free- 
dom of  thinking,  in  the  readiness  for  reforms,  eagerness 
for  novelty,  even  for  all  the  follies  of  false  science  ;  in 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.    c43 

the  antipathy  to  secret  societies,  in  the  predominance  of 
the  democratic  party  in  the  politics  of  the  Union,  and  in 
the  voice  of  the  public  even  when  irregular  and  vicious, 
—  the  voice  of  mobs,  the  voice  of  lynch  law,  —  because 
it  is  thought  to  be,  on  the  whole,  the  verdict,  though 
badly  spoken,  of  the  greatest  number. 

All  this  forwardness  and  self-reliance  cover  self-gov- 
ernment ;  proceed  on  the  belief  that  as  the  people  have 
made  a  government  they  can  make  another  ;  that  their 
union  and  law  are  not  in  their  memory,  but  in  their 
blood  and  condition.  If  they  unmake  a  law  they  can 
easily  make  a  new  one.  In  Mr.  Webster's  imagination 
the  American  Union  was  a  huge  Prince  Rupert's  drop, 
which  will  snap  into  atoms  if  so  much  as  the  smallest 
end  be  shivered  off.  Now  the  fact  is  quite  different 
from  this.  The  people  are  loyal,  law-abiding.  They 
prefer  order,  and  have  no  taste  for  misrule  and  uproar. 

America  was  opened  after  the  feudal  mischief  was 
spent,  and  so  the  people  made  a  good  start.  We  began 
well.  No  inquisition  here,  no  kings,  no  nobles,  no  dom- 
inant church.  Here  heresy  has  lost  its  terrors.  We 
have  eight  or  ten  religions  in  every  large  town,  aud  the 
most  that  comes  of  it  is  a  degree  or  two  on  the  ther- 
mometer of  fashion  ;  a  pew  in  a  particular  church  gives 
an  easier  entrance  to  the  subscription  ball. 

We  began  with  freedom,  and  are  defended  from 
shocks  now  for  a  century  by  the  facility  with  which 
through  popular  assemblies  every  necessary  measure  of 
reform  can  instantly  be  carried.  A  Congress  is  a  stand- 
ing insurrection,  and  escapes  the  violence  of  accumu- 
lated grievance.  As  the  globe  keeps  its  identity  by 
perpetual  change,  so  our  civil  system,  by  perpetual  ap- 
peal to  the  paople  and  acceptance  of  its  reforms. 


344    THE  FORTUNK  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

The  government  is  acquainted  with  the  opinions  of 
all  classes,  knows  the  leading  men  in  the  middle  class, 
knows  the  leaders  of  the  humblest  class.  The  Presi- 
dent comes  near  enough  to  these  ;  if  he  does  not,  the 
caucus  does,  the  primary  ward  and  town  meeting,  and 
what  is  important  does  reach  him. 

The  men,  the  women,  all  over  this  land  shrill  their 
exclamations  of  impatience  and  indignation  at  what  is 
short-coming  or  is  unbecoming  in  the  government,  —  at 
the  want  of  humanity,  of  morality,  —  ever  on  broad 
grounds  of  general  justice,  and  not  on  the  class-feeling 
which  narrows  the  perception  of  English,  French,  Ger- 
man people  at  home. 

In  this  fact,  that  we  are  a  nation  of  individuals,  that 
we  have  a  highly  intellectual  organization,  that  we  can 
see  and  feel  moral  distinctions,  and  that  on  such  an  or- 
ganization sooner  or  later  the  moral  laws  must  tell,  to 
such  ears  must  speak,  —  in  this  is  our  hope.  For  if  the 
prosperity  of  this  country  has  been  merely  the  obedi- 
ence of  man  to  the  guiding  of  nature,  —  of  great  rivers 
and  prairies,  —  yet  is  there  fate  above  fate,  if  we  choose 
to  speak  this  language  ;  or,  if  there  is  fate  in  corn  and 
cotton,  so  is  there  fate  in  thought,  • —  this,  namely,  that 
the  largest  thought  and  the  widest  love  are  born  to  vic- 
tory and  must  prevail. 

The  revolution  is  the  work  of  no  man,  but  the  eternal 
effervescence  of  nature.  It  never  did  not  work.  And 
we  say  that  revolutions  beat  all  the  insurgents,  be  they 
never  so  determined  and  politic  ;  that  the  great  inter- 
ests of  mankind,  being  at  every  moment  through  ages 
in  favor  of  justice  and  the  largest  liberty,  will  always, 
from  time  to  time,  gain  on  the  adversary  and  at  last 
win  the  day.  Never  country  had  such  a  fortune,  as 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  RKPUBLIC.    345 

men  call  fortune,  as  this,  in  its  geography,  its  history, 
and  in  its  majestic  possibilities. 

We  have  much  to  learn,  much  to  correct,  —  a  great 
deal  of  lying  vanity.  The  spread  eagle  must  fold  his 
foolish  wings  and  be  less  of  a  peacock  ;  must  keep  his 
wings  to  carry  the  thunderbolt  when  he  is  commanded. 
We  must  realize  our  rhetoric  and  our  rituals.  Our  na- 
tional flag  is  not  affecting,  as  it  should  be,  because  it 
does  not  represent  the  population  of  the  United  States, 
but  some  Baltimore  or  Chicago  or  Cincinnati  or  Phila- 
delphia caucus  ;  not  union  or  justice,  but  selfishness  and 
cunning.  If  we  never  put  on  the  liberty-cap  until  we 
were  freemen  by  love  and  self-denial,  the  liberty-cap 
would  mean  something.  I  wish  to  see  America  not  like 
the  old  powers  of  the  earth,  grasping,  exclusive  and 
narrow,  but  a  benefactor  such  as  no  country  ever  was, 
hospitable  to  all  nations,  legislating  for  all  nationalities. 
Nations  were  made  to  help  each  other  as  much  as  fami- 
lies were  ;  and  all  advancement  is  by  ideas,  and  not  by 
brute  force  or  mechanic  force. 

In  this  country,  with  our  practical  understanding, 
there  is,  at  present,  a  great  sensualism,  a  headlong 
devotion  to  trade  and  to  the  conquest  of  the  continent, 
—  to  each  man  as  large  a  share  of  the  same  as  he  can 
carve  for  himself, — an  extravagant  confidence  in  our 
talent  and  activity,  which  becomes,  whilst  successful,  n 
scornful  materialism,  —  but  with  the  fault,  of  course, 
that  it  has  no  depth,  no  reserved  force  whereon  to  fall 
back  when  a  reverse  comes. 

That  repose  which  is  the  ornament  and  ripeness  of 
man  is  not  American.  That  repose  which  indicates  a 
faith  in  the  laws  of  the  universe,  —  a  faith  that  they 
will  fulfil  themselves,  and  are  not  to  be  impeded, 


346    THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

gresscd,  or  accelerated.  Our  people  are  too  slight  and 
vain.  They  are  easily  elated  and  easily  depressed.  See 
how  fast  they  extend  the  fleeting  fabric  of  their  trade, 
—  not  at  all  considering  the  remote  reaction  and  bank- 
ruptcy, but  with  the  same  abandonment  to  the  moment 
and  the  facts  of  the  hour  as  the  Esquimaux  who  sells 
his  bed  in  the  morning.  Our  people  act  on  the  moment, 
and  from  external  impulse.  They  all  lean  on  some 
other,  and  this  superstitiously,  and  not  from  insight  of 
his  merit.  They  follow  a  fact  ;  they  follow  success,  and 
not  skill.  Therefore,  as  soon  as  the  success  stops  and 
the  admirable  man  blunders,  they  quit  him  ;  already 
they  remember  that  they  long  ago  suspected  his  judg- 
ment, and  they  transfer  the  repute  of  judgment  to  the 
next  prosperous  person  who  has  not  yet  blundered.  Of 
course  this  levity  makes  them  as  easily  despond.  It 
seems  as  if  history  gave  110  account  of  any  society  in 
which  despondency  came  so  readily  to  heart  as  we  see 
it  and  feel  it  in  ours.  Young  men  at  thirty  and  even 
earlier  lose  all  spring  and  vivacity,  and  if  they  fail  in 
their  first  enterprise  throw  up  the  game. 

The  source  of  mischief  is  the  extreme  difficulty  with 
which  men  are  roused  from  the  torpor  of  every  day. 
Blessed  is  all  that  agitates  the  mass,  breaks  up  this 
torpor,  and  begins  motion.  Corpora  non  agunt  nisi 
soluta ;  the  chemical  rule  is  true  in  mind.  Contrast, 
change,  interruption,  are  necessary  to  new  activity  and 
K3W  combinations. 

If  a  temperate  wise  man  should  look  over  our  Amer- 
ican society,  I  think  the  first  danger  that  would  excite 
his  alarm  would  be  the  European  influences  on  this 
country.  We  buy  much  of  Europe  that  does  not  make 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.    347 

us  better  men  :  and  mainly  the  expensiveness  which  is 
ruining  that  country.  We  import  trifles,  dancers,  sing- 
ers, laces,  books  of  patterns,  modes,  gloves  and  cologne, 
manuals  of  Gothic  architecture,  steam-made  ornaments. 
America  is  provincial.  It  is  an  immense  Halifax.  See 
the  secondariuess  and  aping  of  foreign  and  English  life, 
that  runs  through  this  country,  in  building,  in  dress,  in 
eating,  in  books.  Every  village,  every  city  has  its  archi- 
tecture, its  costume,  its  hotel,  its  private  house,  its 
church,  from  England. 

Our  politics  threaten  her.  Her  manners  threaten  us» 
Life  is  grown  and  growing  so  costly  that  it  threatens 
to  kilt  us.  A  man  is  coming,  here  as  there,  to  value 
himself  on  what  he  can  buy.  Worst  of  all,  his  expense 
is  not  his  own,  but  a  far-off  copy  of  Osborne  House  or 
the  Elysee.  The  tendency  of  this  is  to  make  all  men 
alike  ;  to  extinguish  individualism  and  choke  up  all  the 
channels  of  inspiration  from  God  in  man.  We  lose  our 
invention  and  descend  into  imitation.  A  man  no  longer 
conducts  his  own  life.  It  is  manufactured  for  him.  The 
tailor  makes  your  dress  ;  the  baker  your  bread  ;  the 
upholsterer,  from  an  imported  book  of  patterns,  your 
furniture  ;  the  Bishop  of  London  your  faith. 

In  the  planters  of  this  country,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  conditions  of  the  country,  combined  with 
the  impatience  of  arbitrary  power  which  they  brought 
from  England,  forced  them  to  a  wonderful  personal 
independence  and  to  a  certain  heroic  planting  and  trad- 
ing. Later  this  strength  appeared  in  the  solitudes  of 
the  West,  where  a  man  is  made  a  hero  by  the  varied 
emergencies  of  his  lonely  farm,  and  neighborhoods  must 
combine  against  the  Indians,  or  the  horse-thieves,  or 
the  river  rowdies,  by  organizing  themselves  into  com- 


348          THE    FORTUNE   OF    THE   15EPURLIC. 

mittees  of  vigilance.  Thus  the  land  and  sea  educate 
the  people,  and  bring  out  presence  of  mind,  self-re- 
liance, and  hundred-handed  activity.  These  are  the 
people  for  an  emergency.  They  are  not  to  be  surprised, 
and  can  find  a  way  out  of  any  peril.  This  rough  and 
readv  force  becomes  them,  and  makes  them  fit  citizens 
and  civilizers.  But  if  we  found  them  clinging  to  Eng- 
lish traditions,  which  are  graceful  enough  at  home,  —  as 
the  English  Church,  and  entailed  estates,  and  distrust 
of  popular  election,  —  we  should  feel  this  reactionary, 
and  absurdly  out  of  place. 

Let  the  passion  for  America  cast  out  the  passion  for 
Europe.  Here  let  there  be  what  the  earth  waits  for, 
—  exalted  manhood.  What  this  country  longs  for  is 
personalities,  grand  persons,  to  counteract  its  materi- 
alities. For  it  is  the  rule  of  the  universe  that  corn  shall 
serve  man,  and  not  man  corn. 

They  who  find  America  insipid,  —  they  for  whom 
London  and  Paris  have  spoiled  their  own  homes,  can  be 
spared  to  return  to  those  cities.  I  not  only  see  a  career 
at  home  for  more  genius  than  we  have,  but  for  more 
than  there  is  in  the  world. 

The  class  of  which  I  speak  make  themselves  merry 
without  duties.  They  sit  in  decorated  club-houses  in 
che  cities,  and  burn  tobacco  and  play  whist  ;  in  the 
country  they  sit  idle  in  stores  and  bar-rooms,  and  burn 
tobacco,  and  gossip  and  sleep.  They  complain  of  the 
flatness  of  American  life  ;  "  America  has  no  illusions, 
no  romance."  They  have  no  perception  of  its  destiny. 
They  are  not  Americans. 

The  felon  is  the  logical  extreme  of  the  epicure  and 
coxcomb.  Selfish  luxury  is  the  end  of  both,  though  in 
one  it  is  decorated  with  refinements,  and  in  the  other 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.    349 

brutal.  But  my  point  now  is,  that  this  spirit  is  not 
American. 

Our  young  men  lack  idealism.  A  man  for  success 
must  not  be  pure  idealist,  then  he  will  practically  fail ; 
but  he  must  have  ideas,  must  obey  ideas,  or  he  might 
as  well  be  the  horse  he  rides  on.  A  man  does  not  want 
to  be  sun-dazzled,  sun-blind  ;  but  every  man  must  have 
glimmer  enough  to  keep  him  from  knocking  his  head 
ag-ainst  the  walls.  And  it  is  in  the  interest  of  civiliza- 
tion and  good  society  and  friendship,  that  I  dread  to 
hear  of  well-born,  gifted  and  amiable  men,  that  they 
have  this  indifference,  disposing  them  to  this  despair. 

Of  no  use  are  the  men  who  study  to  do  exactly  as 
was  done  before,  who  can  never  understand  that  to-day 
is  a  new  day.  There  never  was  such  a  combination  as 
this  of  ours,  and  the  rules  to  meet  it  are  not  set  down 
in  any  history.  We  want  men  of  original  perception 
and  original  action,  who  can  open  their  eyes  wider  than, 
to  a  nationality,  —  namely,  to  considerations  of  benefit 
to  the  human  race,  —  can  act  in  the  interest  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  men  of  elastic,  men  of  moral  mind,  who  can  live 
in  the  moment  and  take  a  step  forward.  Columbus 
was  no  backward-creeping  crab,  nor  was  Martin  Luther, 
nor  John  Adams,  nor  Patrick  Henry,  nor  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson ;  and  the  Genius  or  Destiny  of  America  is  no 
log  or  sluggard,  but  a  man  incessantly  advancing,  as 
the  shadow  on  the  dial's  face,  or  the  heavenly  body 
by  whose  light  it  is  marked. 

The  flowering  of  civilization  is  the  finished  man,  the 
man  of  sense,  of  grace,  of  accomplishment,  of  social 
power,  —  the  gentleman.  What  hinders  that  he  be 
born  here  ?  The  new  times  need  a  new  man,  the  com- 
plemental  man,  whom  plainly  this  country  must  fur- 


350    THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

nish.  Freer  swing  his  arms  ;  farther  pierce  his  eyes  ; 
more  forward  and  forthright  his  whole  build  and  rig 
than  the  Englishman's,  who,  we  see,  is  much  imprisoned 
in  his  backbone. 

It  is  certain  that  our  civilization  is  yet  incomplete,  it 
has  not  ended  nor  given  sign  of  ending  in  a  hero.  'T  is 
a  wild  democracy  ;  the  riot  of  mediocrities  and  dis- 
honesties and  fudges.  Ours  is  the  age  of  the  omnibus, 
of  the  third  person  plural,  of  Tammany  Hall.  Is  it 
that  Nature  has  only  so  much  vital  force,  and  must 
dilute  it  if  it  is  to  be  multiplied  into  millions  ?  The 
beautiful  is  never  plentiful.  Then  Illinois  and  Indiana, 
with  their  spawning  loins,  must  needs  be  ordinary. 

It  is  not  a  question  whether  we  shall  be  a  multitude 
of  people.  No,  that  has  been  conspicuously  decided 
already  ;  but  whether  we  shall  be  the  new  nation,  the 
guide  and  lawgiver  of  all  nations,  as  having  clearly 
chosen  and  firmly  held  the  simplest  and  best  rule  of 
political  society. 

Now,  if  the  spirit  which  years  ago  armed  this  country 
against  rebellion,  and  put  forth  such  gigantic  energy  in 
the  charity  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  could  be  waked 
to  the  conserving  and  creating  duty  of  making  the  laws 
just  and  humane,  it  were  to  enroll  a  great  constituency 
of  religious,  self-respecting,  brave,  tender,  faithful  obey- 
ors  of  duty,  lovers  of  men,  filled  with  loyalty  to  each 
other,  and  with  the  simple  and  sublime  purpose  of  car- 
rying out  in  private  and  in  public  action  the  desire  and 
need  of  mankind 

Here  is  the  post  where  the  patriot  should  plant  him- 
self ;  here  the  altar  where  virtuous  young  men,  those 
to  whom  friendship  is  the  dearest  covenant,  should  bind 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.    351 

each  other  to  loyalty  ;  where  genius  should  kindle  its 
fires  and  bring  forgotten  truth  to  the  eyes  of  men. 

It  is  not  possible  to  extricate  yourself  from  the  ques- 
tions in  which  your  age  is  involved.  Let  the  good  citi- 
zen perform  the  duties  put  on  him  here  and  now.  It  is 
not  by  heads  reverted  to  the  dying  Demosthenes,  or  to 
Luther,  or  to  AVallace,  or  to  George  Fox,  or  to  George 
Washington,  that  you  can  combat  the  dangers  and 
dragons  that  beset  the  United  States  at  this  time.  I 
believe  this  cannot  be  accomplished  by  dunces  or  idlers, 
but  requires  docility,  sympathy,  and  religious  receiving 
from  higher  principles  ;  for  liberty,  like  religion,  is  a 
short  and  hasty  fruit,  and  like  all  power  subsists  only 
by  new  rallyings  on  the  source  of  inspiration. 

Power  can  be  generous.  The  very  grandeur  of  the 
means  which  offer  themselves  to  us  should  suggest 
grandeur  in  the  direction  of  our  expenditure.  If  our 
mechanic  arts  are  unsurpassed  in  usefulness,  if  we  have 
taught  the  river  to  make  shoes  and  nails  and  carpets, 
and  the  bolt  of  heaven  to  write  our  letters  like  a  Gillott 
pen,  let  these  wonders  work  for  honest  humanity,  for 
the  poor,  for  justice,  genius  and  the  public  good.  Let 
us  realize  that  this  country,  the  last  found,  is  the  great 
charity  of  God  to  the  human  race. 

America  should  affirm  and  establish  that  in  no  in- 
stance shall  the  guns  go  in  advance  of  the  present  right. 
We  shall  not  make  coups  d'etat  and  afterwards  explain 
and  pay,  but  shall  proceed  like  William  Penn,  or  what- 
ever other  Christian  or  humane  person  who  treats  with 
the  Indian  or  the  foreigner,  on  principles  of  honest 
trade  and  mutual  advantage.  We  can  see  that  the 
Constitution  and  the  law  in  America  must  be  written 
on  ethical  principles,  so  that  the  entire  power  of  the 


352    THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

spiritual  world  shall  hold  the  citizen  loyal,  and  repel 
the  enemy  as  by  force  of  nature.  It  should  be  man- 
kind's bill  of  rights,  or  Royal  Proclamation  of  the  In- 
tellect ascending  the  throne,  announcing  its  good  pleas- 
ure that  now,  once  for  all,  the  world  shall  be  governed 
by  common  sense  and  law  of  morals. 

The  end  of  all  political  struggle  is  to  establish  mo- 
rality as  the  basis  of  all  legislation.  'T  is  not  free  in- 
stitutions, 't  is  not  a  democracy  that  is  the  end,  —  no, 
but  only  the  means.  Morality  is  the  object  of  govern- 
ment. We  want  a  state  of  things  in  which  crime  will 
not  pay  ;  a  state  of  things  which  allows  every  man  the 
largest  liberty  compatible  with  the  liberty  of  every 
other  man. 

Humanity  asks  that  government  shall  not  be  ashamed 
to  be  tender  and  paternal,  but  that  democratic  insti- 
tutions shall  be  more  thoughtful  for  the  interests  of 
women,  for  the  training  of  children,  and  for  the  wel- 
fare of  sick  and  unable  persons,  and  serious  care  of 
criminals,  than  was  ever  any  the  best  government  of 
the  Old  World. 

The  genius  of  the  country  has  marked  out  our  true 
policy,  —  opportunity.  Opportunity  of  civil  rights,  of 
education,  of  personal  power,  and  not  less  of  wealth  ; 
doors  wide  open.  If  I  could  have  it,  —  free  trade  with 
all  the  world  without  toll  or  custom-houses,  invitation 
as  we  now  make  to  every  nation,  to  every  race  and  skin, 
white  men,  red  men,  yellow  men,  black  men  ;  hospi- 
tality of  fair  field  and  equal  laws  to  all.  Let  them 
compete,  and  success  to  the  strongest,  the  wisest  and 
the  best.  The  land  is  wide  enough,  the  soil  has  bread 
for  all. 

I  hope  America  will  come  to  have  its  pride  in  being 


THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.    353 

a  nation  of  servants,  and  not  of  the  served.  How  can 
men  have  any  other  ambition  where  the  reason  has  not 
suff ered  a  disastrous  eclipse  ?  Whilst  every  man  can  say 
I  serve,  —  to  the  whole  extent  of  my  being  I  apply  my 
faculty  to  the  service  of  mankind  in  my  especial  place, 
—  he  therein  'sees  and  shows  a  reason  for  his  being  in 
the  world,  and  is  not  a  moth  or  incumbrance  in  it. 

The  distinction  and  end  of  a  soundly  constituted  man 
is  his  labor.  Use  is  inscribed  on  all  his  faculties.  Use 
is  the  end  to  which  he  exists.  As  the  tree  exists  for  its 
fruit,  so  a  man  for  his  work.  A  fruitless  plant,  an  idle 
animal,  does  not  stand  in  the  universe.  They  are  all 
toiling,  however  secretly  or  slowly,  in  the  province  as- 
signed them,  and  to  a  use  in  the  economy  of  the  world  ; 
the  higher  and  more  complex  organizations  to  higher 
and  more  catholic  service.  And  man  seems  to  play,  by 
his  instincts  and  activity,  a  certain  part  that  even  tells 
on  the  general  face  of  the  planet,  drains  swamps,  leads 
rivers  into  dry  countries  for  their  irrigation,  perforates 
forests  and  stony  mountain-chains  with  roads,  hinders 
the  inroads  of  the  sea  on  the  continent,  as  if  dressing 
the  globe  for  happier  races. 

On  the  whole,  I  know  that  the  cosmic  results  will  be 
the  same,  whatever  the  daily  events  may  be.  Happily 
we  are  under  better  guidance  than  of  statesmen.  Penn- 
sylvania coal  mines,  and  New  York  shipping,  and  free 
labor,  though  not  idealists,  gravitate  in  the  ideal  direc- 
tion. Nothing  less  large  than  justice  can  keep  them  in 
good  temper.  Justice  satisfies  everybody,  and  justice 
alone.  No  monopoly  must  be  foisted  in,  no  weak  party 
or  nationality  sacrificed,  no  coward  compromise  con- 
ceded to  a  strung  partner.  Every  one  of  these  is  the 
seed  of  vice,  war  and  national  disorganization.  It  is 
23 


354    THE  FORTUNE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

our  part  to  carry  out  to  the  last  the  ends  of  liberty  and 
justice.  We  shall  stand,  then,  for  vast  interests  ;  north 
and  south,  east  and  west  will  be  present  to  our  minds, 
and  our  vote  will  be  as  if  they  voted,  and  we  shall  know 
that  our  vote  secures  the  foundations  of  the  state,  good- 
will, liberty  and  security  of  traffic  and  of  production, 
and  mutual  increase  of  good-will  in  the  great  interests. 

Our  helm  is  given  up  to  a  better  guidance  than  our 
own  ;  the  course  of  events  is  quite  too  strong  for  any 
helmsman,  and  our  little  wherry  is  taken  in  tow  by  the 
ship  of  the  great  Admiral  which  knows  the  way,  and 
has  the  force  to  draw  men  and  states  and  planets  to 
their  good. 

Such  and  so  potent  is  this  high  method  by  which  the 
Divine  Providence  sends  the  chiefest  benefits  under  the 
mask  of  calamities,  that  I  do  not  think  we  shall  by  any 
perverse  ingenuity  prevent  the  blessing. 

In  seeing  this  guidance  of  events,  in  seeing  this  felic- 
ity without  example  that  has  rested  on  the  Union  thus 
far,  I  find  new  confidence  for  the  future.  I  could 
heartily  wish  that  our  will  and  endeavor  were  more  ac- 
tive parties  to  the  work.  But  I  see  in  all  directions  the 
light  breaking.  Trade  and  government  will  not  alone 
be  the  favored  aims  of  mankind,  but  every  useful,  every 
elegant  art,  every  exercise  of  imagination,  the  height  of 
reason,  the  noblest  affection,  the  purest  religion  will 
find  their  home  in  our  institutions,  and  write  our  laws, 
for  the  benefit  of  men. 


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